Yang Seonyeong, Lee Sun Hwa, Kim Jaeho, Cho Soo-Jin, Kang Yeonwook
Department of Psychology, College of Social Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea.
Department of Neurology, Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital, Hwaseong, Korea.
Dement Neurocogn Disord. 2025 Jan;24(1):54-68. doi: 10.12779/dnd.2025.24.1.54. Epub 2025 Jan 16.
Empathy comprises cognitive and emotional components. However, the impairments in empathy among individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) are not well understood, particularly in the context of depression, which may exacerbate these deficits. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of neurodegeneration and depression on empathetic abilities.
The study included 31 healthy elderly (HE) individuals, 30 patients with amnestic multi-domain MCI (amMCI), and 30 patients with DAT. Empathy was assessed using the Korean-Multifaceted Empathy Test (K-MET), and the Interpersonal Response Index (IRI). Participants were classified as depressed or non-depressed using the Geriatric Depression Scale. A two-way MANOVA was conducted to examine differences in empathy based on group and depressive status.
A significant interaction between group and depressive status was found for both cognitive and emotional empathy on the K-MET, but not on the IRI. In the depressed group, cognitive empathy scores were lower in the order of HE, amMCI, and DAT. Similarly, in the non-depressed group, the HE group performed better than both amMCI and DAT, with no significant difference between the latter two. Regarding emotional empathy, the depressed HE group scored higher than both amMCI and DAT, with no significant difference between these groups. In the non-depressed group, emotional empathy declined in the order of HE, amMCI, and DAT.
These findings indicate that both neurodegeneration and depression significantly impair empathetic abilities, with declines in cognitive and emotional empathy evident at the MCI stage, regardless of depressive status.
同理心包括认知和情感成分。然而，轻度认知障碍（MCI）和阿尔茨海默病型痴呆（DAT）患者的同理心受损情况尚未得到充分理解，尤其是在抑郁症的背景下，抑郁症可能会加剧这些缺陷。本研究旨在评估神经退行性变和抑郁症对同理心能力的影响。
该研究纳入了31名健康老年人（HE）、30名遗忘型多领域MCI（amMCI）患者和30名DAT患者。使用韩国多维度同理心测试（K-MET）和人际反应指数（IRI）评估同理心。使用老年抑郁量表将参与者分为抑郁组和非抑郁组。进行双向多变量方差分析以检验基于组别和抑郁状态的同理心差异。
在K-MET上，认知同理心和情感同理心在组别和抑郁状态之间存在显著交互作用，但在IRI上未发现。在抑郁组中，认知同理心得分按HE、amMCI和DAT的顺序降低。同样，在非抑郁组中，HE组的表现优于amMCI组和DAT组，后两者之间无显著差异。关于情感同理心，抑郁的HE组得分高于amMCI组和DAT组，这两组之间无显著差异。在非抑郁组中，情感同理心按HE、amMCI和DAT的顺序下降。
这些发现表明，神经退行性变和抑郁症均显著损害同理心能力，在MCI阶段，无论抑郁状态如何，认知和情感同理心均明显下降。
