title: Decreased empathy response to other people's pain in bipolar disorder: evidence from an event-related potential study.
abstract: Bipolar disorder (BD) patients often demonstrate poor socialization that may stem from a lower capacity for empathy. We examined the associated neurophysiological abnormalities by comparing event-related potentials (ERP) between 30 BD patients in different states and 23 healthy controls (HCs, matched for age, sex, and education) during a pain empathy task. Subjects were presented pictures depicting pain or neutral images and asked to judge whether the person shown felt pain (pain task) and to identify the affected side (laterality task) during ERP recording. Amplitude of pain-empathy related P3 (450-550 ms) of patients versus HCs was reduced in painful but not neutral conditions in occipital areas [(mean (95% confidence interval), BD vs. HCs: 4.260 (2.927, 5.594) vs. 6.396 (4.868, 7.924)] only in pain task. Similarly, P3 (550-650 ms) was reduced in central areas [4.305 (3.029, 5.581) vs. 6.611 (5.149, 8.073)]. Current source density in anterior cingulate cortex differed between pain-depicting and neutral conditions in HCs but not patients. Manic severity was negatively correlated with P3 difference waves (pain - neutral) in frontal and central areas (Pearson r = -0.497, P = 0.005; r = -0.377, P = 0.040). Electrophysiological correlates of empathy processing are reduced in BD depending on manic symptom severity.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Department of Medical Psychology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Collaborative Innovation Centre of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Anhui Mental Health Centre, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Jingyue
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Anhui Mental Health Centre, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Xinglong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Anhui Mental Health Centre, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Xiaosi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Department of Medical Psychology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Collaborative Innovation Centre of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Anhui Mental Health Centre, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Department of Medical Psychology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Collaborative Innovation Centre of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Anhui Mental Health Centre, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Anhui Mental Health Centre, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mu
authors.affiliation: Anhui Mental Health Centre, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Su
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Anhui Mental Health Centre, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Department of Medical Psychology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Collaborative Innovation Centre of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Fangfang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Department of Medical Psychology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Collaborative Innovation Centre of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Fengqiong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Laboratory of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Department of Medical Psychology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Collaborative Innovation Centre of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, Anhui, China.|Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004645:Empathy; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology