title: Inter-individual relationships in empathic traits and feedback-related fronto-central brain activity: an event-related potential study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Neuroimaging studies continue to indicate the major role the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays in processing empathic responses. Error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential (ERP) thought to arise from the ACC, has been found to correlate with scores for individual empathic personality. This study investigated the relationship between empathic personality traits and the amplitude of feedback-related negativity (FRN), an ERP sourced from the ACC and similar to the ERN, using a task involving feedback of monetary gains or losses.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen healthy participants answered an empathy trait questionnaire and performed a gambling task to elicit FRN. Because FRN amplitude is thought to be associated with attention, motivation, emotional state, and anxiety trait, we performed a partial correlation analysis between the empathic trait score and FRN amplitude while controlling for variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In partial correlation analysis, FRN amplitude was significantly inversely correlated with scores for personal distress and marginally correlated with scores for empathic concern and with total average score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study revealed for the first time an association between FRN and emotional empathic traits, after controlling for variables that can affect FRN amplitude. However, we also found a reversed directional correlation contrary to our expectations. This fronto-central brain activity may be associated with empathic properties via dopaminergic neuronal function. Future study using these electric potentials as experimental tools is expected to help elucidate the neurological mechanism of empathy.
authors: Yuki
authors: Y
authors: Motomura
authors: Akira
authors: A
authors: Takeshita
authors: Yuka
authors: Y
authors: Egashira
authors: Takayuki
authors: T
authors: Nishimura
authors: Yeon-Kyu
authors: YK
authors: Kim
authors: Shigeki
authors: S
authors: Watanuki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D025461:Feedback, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult