title: Multidimensional assessment of empathic abilities in patients with insular glioma.
abstract: Recent studies have provided evidence that there are two possible systems for empathy: affective empathy (AE) and cognitive empathy (CE). Neuroimaging paradigms have proven that the insular cortex is involved in empathy processing, particularly in AE. However, these observations do not provide causal evidence for the role of the insula in empathy. Although impairments in empathy have been described following insular damage in a few case studies, it is not clear whether insular cortex is involved in CE and whether these two systems are impaired independently or laterally in patients with insular gliomas. In this study, we assessed 17 patients with an insular glioma, 17 patients with a noninsular glioma, and 30 healthy controls using a method that combined a self-report empathy questionnaire with the emotion recognition task, assessment of empathy for others' pain, and the emotional perspective-taking paradigm. We found that patients with an insular glioma had lower scores for empathic concern and perspective taking than did either healthy controls or lesion controls. The patients' abilities to recognize facial emotions, perceive others' pain, and understand the emotional perspectives of others were also significantly impaired. Furthermore, we did not observe a laterality effect on either AE or CE among those with insular lesions. These findings revealed that both AE and CE are impaired in patients with an insular glioma and that the insular cortex may be a central neuroanatomical structure in both the AE and CE systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Anhui Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Brain Disease, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Anhui Provincial Stereotactic Neurosurgical Institute, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Anhui Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Brain Disease, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Anhui Provincial Stereotactic Neurosurgical Institute, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Guangming
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, School of Life Sciences University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Ru
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, School of Life Sciences University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jing
authors.affiliation: Centers for Biomedical Engineering, School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China.|School of Foreign Languages, Anhui Jianzhu University, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Yongjun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, School of Life Sciences University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Anhui Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China. niuchaoshi@163.com.|Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Brain Disease, Hefei, Anhui, China. niuchaoshi@163.com.|Anhui Provincial Stereotactic Neurosurgical Institute, Hefei, Anhui, China. niuchaoshi@163.com.
authors.forename: Chaoshi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, School of Life Sciences University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China. zxcustc@ustc.edu.cn.|Centers for Biomedical Engineering, School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China. zxcustc@ustc.edu.cn.|Center of Medical Physics and Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, CAS, Hefei, Anhui, China. zxcustc@ustc.edu.cn.|School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China. zxcustc@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaochu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000523:psychology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003071:Cognition; D004645:Empathy; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D005910:Glioma / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D058748:Pain Perception; D011930:Reaction Time; D012640:Seizures / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D057566:Self Report; D012938:Social Perception; D047368:Tumor Burden
keywords: Affective empathy; Cognitive empathy; Empathy paradigms; Insular cortex; Laterality effect