title: Altered brain response to others׳ pain in major depressive disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Empathy has a central role in successful interpersonal engagement. Several studies have reported altered empathy in major depressive disorder (MDD), which could lead to interpersonal difficulties. However, the neural basis of altered empathy in the disorder is still largely unknown. To address this, we performed functional magnetic resonance imaging that tested empathy for others׳ pain in MDD patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eleven patients with MDD and 11 age-, gender-, handedness-, and education level-matched healthy control subjects were studied. We compared MDD patients and healthy controls for their regional hemodynamic responses to visual perception of videos showing human hands in painful situations. We also assessed subjective pain ratings of the videos in each group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The MDD patients showed lower pain ratings for the painful videos compared with the healthy controls. In addition, the MDD patients showed reduced cerebral activation in the left middle cingulate cortex, and the right somatosensory-related cortices, whereas they showed greater cerebral activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We relied on a relatively small sample size and could not exclude effects of medications.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that in MDD patients the altered neural activations in these regions may be associated with a deficit in the identification of pain in others. This study adds to our understanding of the neural mechanism involved in empathy in MDD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Junya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fujino
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan. Electronic address: yamasaki@rakunan-hosp.jp.
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamasaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Miyata
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryosaku
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kawada
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Matsukawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Ariyoshi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takemura
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Miki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Shisei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tei
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidehiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Human Brain Research Center, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshihiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aso
authors.affiliation: Human Brain Research Center, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidenao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukuyama
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Shogoin-Kawaharacho 54, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshiya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Murai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cingulate cortex; Depression; Empathy; Inferior frontal gyrus; fMRI