title: The balance between feeling and knowing: affective and cognitive empathy are reflected in the brain's intrinsic functional dynamics.
abstract: Affective empathy (AE) is distinguished clinically and neurally from cognitive empathy (CE). While AE is selectively disrupted in psychopathy, autism is associated with deficits in CE. Despite such dissociations, AE and CE together contribute to normal human empathic experience. A dimensional measure of individual differences in AE 'relative to' CE captures this interaction and may reveal brain-behavior relationships beyond those detectable with AE and CE separately. Using resting-state fMRI and measures of empathy in healthy adults, we show that relative empathic ability (REA) is reflected in the brain's intrinsic functional dynamics. Dominance of AE was associated with stronger functional connectivity among social-emotional regions (ventral anterior insula, orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, perigenual anterior cingulate). Dominance of CE was related to stronger connectivity among areas implicated in interoception, autonomic monitoring and social-cognitive processing (brainstem, superior temporal sulcus, ventral anterior insula). These patterns were distinct from those observed with AE and CE separately. Finally, REA and the strength of several functional connections were associated with symptoms of psychopathology. These findings suggest that REA provides a dimensional index of empathic function and pathological tendencies in healthy adults, which are reflected in the intrinsic functional dynamics of neural systems associated with social and emotional cognition.
authors: Phyllis Green and Randolph Cowen Institute for Pediatric Neuroscience at NYU Child Study Center, 215 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors: Christine L
authors: CL
authors: Cox
authors: Lucina Q
authors: LQ
authors: Uddin
authors: Adriana
authors: A
authors: Di Martino
authors: F Xavier
authors: FX
authors: Castellanos
authors: Michael P
authors: MP
authors: Milham
authors: Clare
authors: C
authors: Kelly
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D000091402:Prohibitins; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: C000717331:PHB2 protein, human; D000091402:Prohibitins; D010100:Oxygen