Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.
Soc Neurosci. 2021 Jun;16(3):232-255. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2021.1889657. Epub 2021 Mar 29.
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) has been used to modulate empathy, but no studies have meta-analyzed the evidence base for its efficacy. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of tDCS at modulating empathy. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials involving anodal or cathodal versus sham tDCS to modulate empathy in healthy adults and clinical populations. Random-effects modelling was applied to pooling overall efficacy estimates using standardized mean differences (Hedge's g) and 95% confidence intervals. Outcome measures for tasks designed to measure empathy were reaction time and accuracy. Anodal tDCS appears to improve lab-based computerized measures of cognitive empathy in healthy adult volunteers. While the evidence provided by this review may be of relevance to individuals with impaired empathic capabilities, the generalizability of our findings is geared towards nonclinical populations given the preponderance of healthy volunteers in our review. Hence, it is not clear if moderate improvements in speed and accuracy on lab-based computerized empathy measures would lead to meaningful clinical improvements. Future studies should consider the use of tDCS to modulate empathy in clinical populations.
经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）已被用于调节同理心，但目前尚无研究对其疗效的证据基础进行荟萃分析。本研究旨在确定 tDCS 调节同理心的疗效。我们对涉及健康成年人和临床人群的经颅直流电刺激（anodal 或 cathodal 与 sham tDCS）调节同理心的随机对照试验进行了系统评价和荟萃分析。使用标准化均数差（Hedge's g）和 95%置信区间，采用随机效应模型对总体疗效估计值进行合并。用于测量同理心的任务的结果测量是反应时间和准确性。与 sham 刺激相比，阳极 tDCS 似乎可以改善健康成年志愿者基于实验室的计算机认知同理心测量。虽然本综述提供的证据可能与同理心能力受损的个体有关，但鉴于我们的综述中健康志愿者居多，我们的发现的普遍性针对非临床人群。因此，实验室基于计算机的同理心测量的速度和准确性的适度提高是否会导致有意义的临床改善尚不清楚。未来的研究应考虑在临床人群中使用 tDCS 来调节同理心。
