An Investigation of Behavioural and Self-Reported Cognitive Empathy Deficits in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders and Adolescents With Behavioural Difficulties

Abstract

Deficits in empathy have been considered hallmarks in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) but are also considered to underlie antisocial behaviour associated with individuals with callous unemotional traits (CU). Research has suggested that individuals with autism spectrum disorders show more difficulties with cognitive empathy, and that individuals diagnosed with behaviours difficulties, characterised by CU traits and antisocial behaviour, demonstrate low affective empathy. In the current manuscript we present findings of two studies. The first study describes the validation of a new stimulus set developed for the empathic accuracy task, focused on its cognitive component. The second study compares the performance of 27 adolescents with ASD, 27 age matched typically developing adolescents and 17 adolescents with behavioural difficulties on the empathic accuracy task and a self-report measure of empathy. While, no differences were observed between the three groups across the empathy accuracy task, the adolescents with ASD and CD showed deficits in their cognitive empathy across the self-report measure. Adolescents with ASD showed lower scores in particularly their perspective taking abilities, whereas the adolescences with behavioural difficulties showed more difficulties with their online simulation. No differences in self-reported affective empathy across the three groups were observed. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

Empathy deficits, callous‐unemotional traits and structural underpinnings in autism spectrum disorder and conduct disorder youth

“…The potentially overlapping empathy deficits displayed by the group of youths with ASD and those with CD results would be in line with the overlapping aggressive, antisocial, and disruptive symptoms observed in ASD and CD, which were also associated with empathy deficits in previous studies (Frick et al, 2013;Kaat & Lecavalier, 2013). For the ASD group, global empathy deficits were observed, in line with the existing evidence of deficits in CE (K. Rogers et al, 2007;Schwenck et al, 2012;Vilas et al, 2021), but also in abilities that need both AE and CE (Lombardo et al, 2010) such as self-other distinction. Against expectations, CD youths only showed CE deficits in the parent-report and no deficits in the self-report, which might suggest differences between self-perceived and externally observed empathy abilities.…”

“…In our study, the inclusion of CU traits in the computational models reduced the relevance of the AE but not CE deficits for the ASD group, suggestive of a potential differential impact of CU traits on empathy deficits on each disorder. These findings would help to understand those of previous studies where deficits in pure CE processes were found only in ASD samples and not in youth with high levels of CU traits (Jones et al, 2010;O'Nions et al, 2014;Schwenck et al, 2012;Vilas et al, 2021). This might further suggest that CE T A B L E 5 Spatial centers of gravity depicting the shared peak clusters of the region of interest analysis negatively associated with callousunemotional traits.…”

“…Selective impairments in AE and CE have been observed in different psychological disorders such as patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or conduct disorder (CD). Empathy deficits are a known core feature of ASD experiencing major difficulties in perspective‐taking (Vilas et al, 2021), TOM (Baron‐Cohen et al, 1985; Blair, 2005; Cantio et al, 2016; Happé et al, 2017; Jones et al, 2010; Schwenck et al, 2012) and social interaction (Frith & Frith, 2003; van der Zee & Derksen, 2020). Patients with ASD frequently show difficulties in emotion recognition and distinguishing between positive and negative facial expressions, which might lead to deficits in appropriate social responding and social reciprocity (Frith, 2001; Schulte‐Rüther et al, 2017).…”

“…Thus, CU traits might present a potential symptomatic overlap between ASD and CD (Carter Leno et al, 2015, 2021; Frick et al, 2013; Herpers et al, 2016; Ibrahim et al, 2019; Kaat & Lecavalier, 2013). An improved understanding on the association between CU traits and the empathy deficits observed in ASD and CD and could potentially help would be needed to test whether these deficits really show a double dissociation character (Georgiou et al, 2019; Grove et al, 2014; Klapwijk et al, 2016; Noppari, 2022; Vilas et al, 2021).…”

Hypo‐ or hyperarousal? The mechanisms underlying social information processing in autism

“…Autistic children are described as being indifferent to other people's distress and less likely to offer comfort to others in distress. Based on findings from self‐ and parent‐report scales and clinical observations, autistic adolescents (mean age of 15 years) tend to show difficulties in cognitive empathy and empathic concern (Vilas et al, 2021). However, in studies using skin conductance, pupillometry, and brain activations to measure emotional empathy, an unconscious and automatic process, autistic adults showed more complex patterns of empathy (e.g., Gu et al, 2015).…”