Social cognition in a case of amnesia with neurodevelopmental mechanisms

Staniloiu, Angelica; Borsutzky, Sabine; Woermann, Friedrich G.; Markowitsch, Hans J.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00342

Cited by 19 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 199 publications

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“…However, explicit ratings of pain intensity to pictures depicting a body part in pain were significantly lower in patients than in control groups, suggesting that at the same patients' empathy for others' pain might be attenuated by their lack of past pain experiences. However, in contrast to the convergent evidence above, patients with autobiographical memory impairments, such as amnesic patients, show little evidence of impaired empathy, at least for cold empathy, which seems to be spared (Rabin, Braverman, Gilboa, Stuss, & Rosenbaum, 2012;Rosenbaum, Stuss, Levine, & Tulving, 2007) or only mildly impaired (Beadle, Tranel, Cohen, & Duff, 2013;Staniloiu, Borsutzky, Woermann, & Markowitsch, 2013). In sum, current neuroimaging research provides strong evidence for a link between autobiographical memory and empathy, but lacks the critical evidence that autobiographical memories are actually retrieved in the service of empathy.…”

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confidence: 63%

EEG and fMRI Evidence for Autobiographical Memory Reactivation in Empathy

Meconi¹,

Linde-Domingo²,

Ferreira³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Empathy relies on the ability to mirror and to explicitly infer others' inner states. Studies on healthy populations show consistent evidence supporting the idea that our memories play a role in empathy when building a representation of others' inner states (Buckner & Carroll, 2007a; Spreng & Grady, 2009a;Spreng, Mar, & Kim, 2009). However, direct evidence of a reactivation of autobiographical memories (AM) when it comes to empathizing with others' inner states is yet to be shown. To address this question, we conducted two experiments where we recorded electrophysiological (Exp 1) and hemodynamic activity (Exp2) from two independent samples of participants. In Exp 1, EEG was recorded from 28 participants who performed a classic empathy task, i.e. a pain decision task in which targets for empathy were depicted in painful scenes for which participants either did or did not have an AM, followed by a task that explicitly required memory retrieval of the AM and non-AM scenes. The retrieval task acted as a 'localizer' to extract the neural fingerprints of AM and non-AM scenes, which could then be used to probe data from the empathy task. A state-of-the-art EEG pattern classifier was trained and tested across tasks and showed evidence for AM reactivation when participants were preparing their judgement in the empathy task. Participants self-reported higher empathy for people depicted in situations they had experienced themselves (for which they would have an AM) as compared to situations they had not experienced. This behavioral result was replicated in a second fMRI Experiment, where hemodynamic responses were measured from an independent sample of 28 participants. Furthermore, fMRI results showed activation in the brain networks that have been extensively shown in previous studies to underlie both AM retrieval and empathy (study reports behavioral, electrophysiological and fMRI evidence that robustly supports the involvement of autobiographical memory reactivation in empathy. Significance statementHuman empathy is at the basis of our ability to bond with other people and interact in a meaningful way. Since we cannot fully experience what someone else is feeling, a big challenge in psychology is to understand how empathy occurs. We might use our own mind and experience as a model to represent others' inner states. To shed new light onto this debate, we used established and novel paradigms and analysis tools in the fields of social and cognitive neuroscience. In two experiments, we present compelling evidence that shows that participants reactivate AMs when asked to empathize with another person. The current study has the potential to increase scientific knowledge to ultimately impact a wide range of professions working with people in need in the health and social sectors.

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contrasting

confidence: 63%

EEG and fMRI Evidence for Autobiographical Memory Reactivation in Empathy

Meconi¹,

Linde-Domingo²,

Ferreira³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…As illustrated in the previous section, findings from individual cases encouraged recent major developments in the cognitive neuroscience of memory, including a shift from the traditional view of the hippocampus as a system that is dedicated to the encoding and temporary maintenance of long‐term declarative memory. One possibility is that the MTL is involved in scene construction or in relational processing, which might explain findings of impairment not only in recollection, but also in some aspects of perception, working memory, as well as language, future imagining, and social interaction, which were long‐believed to be outside the domain of MTL function. The question remains, however, whether such MTL involvement depends on recruitment of MTL‐mediated LTM to these tasks, or whether truly nonmnemonic functions of MTL are implicated.…”

Section: Theoretical Advances Inspired By Individual Case Studies In mentioning

confidence: 99%

Case studies continue to illuminate the cognitive neuroscience of memory

Rosenbaum

Gilboa

Moscovitch

2014

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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The current ubiquity of functional neuroimaging studies, and the importance they have had in elucidating brain function, obscures the fact that much of what we know about brain-behavior relationships derives largely from the study of single- and multiple-patient cases. A major goal of the present review is to describe how single cases continue to uniquely and critically contribute to cognitive neuroscience theory. With several recent examples from the literature, we demonstrate that single cases can both challenge accepted dogma and generate hypotheses and theories that steer the field in new directions. We discuss recent findings from case studies that specify critical functions of the hippocampus in episodic memory and recollection, and clarify its role in nonmnemonic abilities. Although we focus on the hippocampus, we discuss other regions and the occurrence of new associative learning, as well as the involvement of the ventromedial prefrontal and parietal cortices in memory encoding and retrieval. We also describe ways of dealing with the shortcomings of case studies, and emphasize the partnership of patient and neuroimaging methods in constraining neurocognitive models of memory.

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“…The Multiple-Choice-ToM-Test (Adenauer et al, 2005; Staniloiu et al, 2013) version that we used demanded the patient to read 16 short stories. (The test is available in two variants, one with 30 short written stories and another one with 16 stories.)…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impairments in Episodic-Autobiographical Memory and Emotional and Social Information Processing in CADASIL during Mid-Adulthood

Staniloiu

Woermann

Markowitsch

2014

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) – is the most common genetic source of vascular dementia in adults, being caused by a mutation in NOTCH3 gene. Spontaneous de novo mutations may occur, but their frequency is largely unknown. Ischemic strokes and cognitive impairments are the most frequent manifestations, but seizures affect up to 10% of the patients. Herein, we describe a 47-year-old male scholar with a genetically confirmed diagnosis of CADASIL (Arg133Cys mutation in the NOTCH3 gene) and a seemingly negative family history of CADASIL illness, who was investigated with a comprehensive neuropsychological testing battery and neuroimaging methods. The patient demonstrated on one hand severe and accelerated deteriorations in multiple cognitive domains such as concentration, long-term memory (including the episodic-autobiographical memory domain), problem solving, cognitive flexibility and planning, affect recognition, discrimination and matching, and social cognition (theory of mind). Some of these impairments were even captured by abbreviated instruments for investigating suspicion of dementia. On the other hand the patient still possessed high crystallized (verbal) intelligence and a capacity to put forth a façade of well-preserved intellectual functioning. Although no definite conclusions can be drawn from a single case study, our findings point to the presence of additional cognitive changes in CADASIL in middle adulthood, in particular to impairments in the episodic-autobiographical memory domain and social information processing (e.g., social cognition). Whether these identified impairments are related to the patient’s specific phenotype or to an ascertainment bias (e.g., a paucity of studies investigating these cognitive functions) requires elucidation by larger scale research.

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Social cognition in a case of amnesia with neurodevelopmental mechanisms

Cited by 19 publications

References 199 publications

EEG and fMRI Evidence for Autobiographical Memory Reactivation in Empathy

EEG and fMRI Evidence for Autobiographical Memory Reactivation in Empathy

Case studies continue to illuminate the cognitive neuroscience of memory

Impairments in Episodic-Autobiographical Memory and Emotional and Social Information Processing in CADASIL during Mid-Adulthood

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