Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.
Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Reichman University, Herzliya, Israel.
Brain Behav. 2023 Sep;13(9):e3110. doi: 10.1002/brb3.3110. Epub 2023 Jun 18.
Empathy is a social-cognitive process that operates by relying mainly on the suppression of the cortical alpha rhythm. This phenomenon has been evidenced in dozens of electrophysiological studies targeting adult human subjects. Yet, recent neurodevelopmental studies indicated that at a younger age, empathy involves reversed brain responses (e.g., alpha enhancement patterns). In this multimodal study, we capture neural activity at the alpha range, and hemodynamic response and target subjects at approximately 20 years old as a unique time window in development that allows investigating both low-alpha suppression and high-alpha enhancement. We aim to further investigate the functional role of low-alpha power suppression and high-alpha power enhancement during empathy development.
Brain data from 40 healthy individuals were recorded in two consecutive sessions of magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects perceived vicarious physical pain or no pain.
MEG revealed that the alpha pattern shift during empathy happens in an all-or-none pattern: power enhancement before 18 and suppression after 18 years of age. Additionally, MEG and fMRI highlight a correspondence between high-alpha power increase and blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) decrease before 18, but low-alpha power decrease and BOLD increase after 18. Importantly, this neurodevelopmental transition was not revealed by four other measures: self-reported (a) ratings of the task stimuli, (b) ratings of naturalistic vignettes of vicarious pain, (c) trait empathy, or neural data from (d) a control neuroimaging task.
Findings suggest that at the critical age of around 18, empathy is underpinned by an all-or-none transition from high-alpha power enhancement and functional inhibition to low-alpha power suppression and functional activation in particular brain regions, possibly indicating a marker of maturation in empathic ability. This work advances a recent neurodevelopmental line of studies and provides insight into the functional maturation of empathy at the coming of age.
同理心是一种社会认知过程，主要通过抑制皮质 alpha 节律来运作。这一现象已在数十项针对成年人类被试的电生理研究中得到证实。然而，最近的神经发育研究表明，在年幼时，同理心涉及到相反的大脑反应（例如，alpha 增强模式）。在这项多模态研究中，我们在 alpha 频段捕获神经活动，以及血流动力学反应，并以大约 20 岁为独特的发育窗口期对目标对象进行研究，这允许研究低 alpha 抑制和高 alpha 增强。我们旨在进一步研究同理心发展过程中低 alpha 功率抑制和高 alpha 功率增强的功能作用。
在两次连续的脑磁图（MEG）和功能磁共振成像（fMRI）记录中，对 40 名健康个体的大脑数据进行记录，同时让被试感知替代性身体疼痛或无疼痛。
MEG 显示，同理心期间的 alpha 模式变化呈全有或全无模式：18 岁前增强，18 岁后抑制。此外，MEG 和 fMRI 突出了在 18 岁之前高 alpha 功率增加和血氧水平依赖性（BOLD）减少之间的对应关系，但在 18 岁之后低 alpha 功率减少和 BOLD 增加之间的对应关系。重要的是，这种神经发育过渡并没有被其他四项措施揭示：（a）被试对任务刺激的自我报告评分，（b）对替代性疼痛自然情景的自我报告评分，（c）特质同理心，或（d）来自控制神经影像学任务的神经数据。
研究结果表明，在大约 18 岁的关键年龄，同理心的基础是从高 alpha 功率增强和功能抑制到低 alpha 功率抑制和特定脑区功能激活的全有或全无的转变，这可能表明同理心能力成熟的标志。这项工作推进了最近的神经发育研究，并提供了对成年同理心功能成熟的见解。
