Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.
German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), Partner Site Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 17;14(1):21662. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-71825-1.
Empathy impairments are considered a key aspect of autism-spectrum disorders (ASD). Previous research consistently shows reduced cognitive empathy, but findings on affective empathy vary, possibly due to experimental design variations (e.g., stimulus modality, social distance) and individual psychological factors (e.g., perceptual abilities, emotional reactivity). This study aims to clarify deficits in affective and cognitive empathy in ASD by addressing these contributing factors. Empathy was examined in 34 autistic individuals and 33 typically developed controls (TDCs) through the Textual Empathy Test (TET). The TET was developed to assess emotional responses when imagining oneself (emotional reactivity) as compared to a target person (friend, stranger) in emotional situations presented via short verbal descriptions. Participants rated emotional states of the target person (cognitive empathy) as well as their own emotional responses when imagining the target person in that situation (affective empathy). Ratings were interpreted relative to normative mean values through standardized regression coefficients. Results showed that high-functioning autism was associated with lower cognitive and affective empathy irrespective of social distance as well as with decreased emotional reactivity compared to controls. Moreover, emotional reactivity mediated the impact of ASD on both empathic components. In summary, altered emotional reactivity may underlie impaired empathy in autistic individuals.
同理心缺陷被认为是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的一个关键方面。先前的研究一致表明认知同理心降低，但情感同理心的发现存在差异，这可能是由于实验设计的变化（例如，刺激方式、社会距离）和个体心理因素（例如，感知能力、情绪反应性）。本研究旨在通过解决这些因素，阐明 ASD 中的情感和认知同理心缺陷。通过使用文本同理心测试（TET），对 34 名自闭症个体和 33 名典型发育对照组（TDC）进行了同理心检查。TET 旨在通过短的口头描述来评估情感情境下将自己（情感反应性）与目标人物（朋友、陌生人）进行想象时的情绪反应。参与者对目标人物的情绪状态（认知同理心）以及他们在这种情况下想象目标人物时的自己的情绪反应（情感同理心）进行了评分。评分通过标准化回归系数相对于正态均值进行解释。结果表明，高功能自闭症与认知和情感同理心降低有关，无论社交距离如何，与对照组相比，情绪反应性也降低。此外，情绪反应性介导了 ASD 对两种同理心成分的影响。总之，改变的情绪反应性可能是自闭症个体同理心受损的基础。
