Cognitive and Emotional Empathy in Young Adolescents: an fMRI Study

Abstract

Objectives: We investigated the differences in cognitive and emotional empathic ability between adolescents and adults, and the differences of the brain activation during cognitive and emotional empathy tasks. Methods: Adolescents (aged 13-15 years, n=14) and adults (aged 19-29 years, n=17) completed a range of empathic ability questionnaires and were scanned functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during both cognitive and emotional empathy task. Differences in empathic ability and brain activation between the groups were analyzed. Results: Both cognitive and emotional empathic ability were significantly lower in the adolescent compared to the adult group. Comparing the adolescent to the adult group showed that brain activation was significantly greater in the right transverse temporal gyrus (BA 41), right insula (BA 13), right superior parietal lobule (BA 7), right precentral gyrus (BA 4), and right thalamus whilst performing emotional empathy tasks. No brain regions showed significantly greater activation in the adolescent compared to the adult group while performing cognitive empathy task. In the adolescent group, scores of the Fantasy Subscale in the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, which reflects cognitive empathic ability, negatively correlated with activity of right superior parietal lobule during emotional empathic situations (r=-0.739, p=0.006). Conclusion: These results strongly suggest that adolescents possess lower cognitive and emotional empathic abilities than adults do and require compensatory hyperactivation of the brain regions associated with emotional empathy or embodiment in emotional empathic situation. Compensatory hyperactivation in the emotional empathy-related brain areas among adolescents are likely associated with their lower cognitive empathic ability.

Investigating the Contribution of White Matter Hyperintensities and Cortical Thickness to Empathy in Neurodegenerative and Cerebrovascular Diseases

“…Likewise, one study reported stronger activation in the right superior, middle, and inferior frontal cortices in adults when performing tasks associated with cognitive empathy and theory of mind (ToM) [90], whilst another study found increased activity in the right middle frontal during cognitive perception of emotional pain [91]. Collectively, these findings suggest a disturbance in the salience and default mode networks in our sample, which are activated during the selection and monitoring of salient emotional stimuli and the perception of self and other emotional state, respectively [3].…”

“…The right cingulate cortex and insula have been implicated in emotion contagion and emotional empathy [89]. Furthermore, some functional neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the prefrontal cortex, frontal pole, and temporal regions in mediating complex cognitive function, including PT and mentalisation [5,90,91]. Multani et al [5] found a loss of cognitive empathy and emotional detection deficit in AD, bvFTD, and PD that were related to decreased functional connectivity mainly in the right inferior temporal gyrus, frontal pole, paracingulate gyrus, insular, and inferior parietal lobule.…”

Experience-dependent associations between distinct subtypes of childhood trauma and brain function and architecture

“…Furthermore, we found that physical neglect is negatively related to the morphology indices of the transverse temporal cortex, superior parietal lobule, and insula. These regions play important roles in sensory, affective, and attention reactions, as well as in cognitive processing (71). Therefore, we found that a failure to meet the physical needs of children could affect brain areas mainly involved in attention, reward, and sensorimotor processing, as well as affective and social cognitive abilities.…”

Perspective Chapter: Having Heart – The Different Facets of Empathy

“…Other studies show that as children develop, there are changes in which regions are used for cognitive and affective empathy as well as how strongly they are activated. In brief, younger-aged people use a more bottom-up response to an emotionally charged situation, and as they age, a more top-down approach is utilized as the cerebral cortex, especially the prefrontal cortex, matures after the teenage years [64,65]. In a chapter by Newton [44], studies are reviewed that show how physicians empathically respond to noncompliant patients and to patients who are disparate from themselves.…”