Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, USA.
Institute of Gerontology Wayne State University, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2021 Jun 18;156:107832. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107832. Epub 2021 Mar 19.
Empathy, the capacity to understand and share others' emotions, can occur through cognitive and affective components. These components are different conceptually, behaviorally, and in the brain. Neuroimaging task-based research in adolescents and adults document that cognitive empathy associates with the default mode and frontoparietal networks, whereas regions of the salience network underlie affective empathy. However, cognitive empathy is slower to mature than affective empathy and the extant literature reveals considerable developmental differences between adolescent and adult brains within and between these three networks. We extend previous work by examining empathy's association with functional connectivity within and between these networks in adolescents. Participants (n = 84, aged 13-17; 46.4% female) underwent resting state fMRI and completed self-report measures (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) for empathy as part of a larger Nathan-Kline Institute study. Regression analyses revealed adolescents reporting higher cognitive empathy had higher within DMN connectivity. Post hoc analysis revealed cognitive empathy's association within DMN connectivity is independent of affective empathy or empathy in general; and this association is driven by positive pairwise connections between the bilateral angular gyri and medial prefrontal cortex. These results suggest introspective cognitive processes related to the DMN are specifically important for cognitive empathy in adolescence.
同理心，即理解和分享他人情感的能力，可以通过认知和情感成分来实现。这些成分在概念上、行为上和大脑中是不同的。青少年和成年人的神经影像学任务研究表明，认知同理心与默认模式和额顶网络有关，而情感同理心则与突显网络的区域有关。然而，认知同理心比情感同理心成熟得慢，并且现有文献揭示了这三个网络内和之间青少年和成人大脑之间存在相当大的发展差异。我们通过检查同理心与这些网络内和之间的功能连接的关系，扩展了之前的研究。参与者（n=84，年龄 13-17；46.4%为女性）接受了静息状态 fMRI 检查，并完成了同理心的自我报告量表（人际反应性指数），这是 Nathan-Kline 研究所的一项更大规模研究的一部分。回归分析显示，报告认知同理心较高的青少年在 DMN 内的连接性较高。事后分析表明，认知同理心与 DMN 内连接性的关联独立于情感同理心或一般同理心；这种关联是由双侧角回和内侧前额叶皮质之间的正相关对驱动的。这些结果表明，与 DMN 相关的内省认知过程对于青少年的认知同理心特别重要。
