title: Different brain responses during empathy in autism spectrum disorders versus conduct disorder and callous-unemotional traits.
abstract: Deficits in empathy are reported in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and also underlie antisocial behavior of individuals with conduct disorder and callous-unemotional traits (CD/CU+). Many studies suggest that individuals with ASD are typically impaired in cognitive aspects of empathy, and individuals with CD/CU+ typically in affective aspects. In the current study, we compared the neural correlates of cognitive and affective aspects of empathy between youth with ASD and youth with CD/CU+.
  
  
  
  Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess boys with ASD (N = 23), boys with CD/CU+ (N = 23), and typically developing (TD) boys (N = 33), aged 15-19 years. Angry and fearful faces were presented and participants were asked to either infer the emotional state from the face (other-task; emotion recognition) or to judge their own emotional response to the face (self-task; emotional resonance).
  
  
  
  During emotion recognition, boys with ASD showed reduced responses compared to the other groups in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). During emotional resonance, the CD/CU+ and ASD groups showed reduced amygdala responses compared to the TD controls, boys with ASD showed reduced responses in bilateral hippocampus, and the CD/CU+ boys showed reduced responses in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and anterior insula (AI).
  
  
  
  Results suggest differential abnormal brain responses associated with specific aspects of empathic functioning in ASD and CD/CU+. Decreased amygdala responses in ASD and CD/CU+ might point to impaired emotion processing in both disorders, whereas reduced vmPFC responses suggest problems in processing cognitive aspects of empathy in ASD. Reduced IFG/AI responses, finally, suggest decreased emotional resonance in CD/CU+.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium - Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.|Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Eduard T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Klapwijk
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium - Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.|Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Moji
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aghajani
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium - Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.|Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Olivier F
authors.initials: OF
authors.lastname: Colins
authors.affiliation: Centrum Autisme Rivierduinen, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Godfried M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Marijnissen
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology, Faculty of Law, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Popma
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium - Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.|Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Natasja D J
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: van Lang
authors.affiliation: Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands.|Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Nic J A
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: van der Wee
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium - Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.|Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands.|Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Robert R J M
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Vermeiren
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Autism spectrum disorders; callous-unemotional; conduct disorder; emotions; empathy; functional magnetic resonance imaging