Abstract
Neural substrates of empathy are mainly investigated through task-related functional MRI. However, the functional neural mechanisms at rest underlying the empathic response have been poorly studied. We aimed to investigate neuroanatomical and functional substrates of cognitive and affective empathy. The self-reported empathy questionnaire Cognitive and Affective Empathy Test (TECA), T1 and T2∗-weighted 3-Tesla MRI were obtained from 22 healthy young females (mean age: 19.6 ± 2.4) and 20 males (mean age: 22.5 ± 4.4). Groups of low and high empathy were established for each scale. FreeSurfer v6.0 was used to estimate cortical thickness and to automatically segment the subcortical structures. FSL v5.0.10 was used to compare resting-state connectivity differences between empathy groups in six defined regions: the orbitofrontal, cingulate, and insular cortices, and the amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus using a non-parametric permutation approach. The high empathy group in the Perspective Taking subscale (cognitive empathy) had greater thickness in the left orbitofrontal and ventrolateral frontal cortices, bilateral anterior cingulate, superior frontal, and occipital regions. Within the affective empathy scales, subjects with high Empathic Distress had higher thalamic volumes than the low-empathy group. Regarding resting-state connectivity analyses, low-empathy individuals in the Empathic Happiness scale had increased connectivity between the orbitofrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate when compared with the high-empathy group. In conclusion, from a structural point of view, there is a clear dissociation between the brain correlates of affective and cognitive factors of empathy. Neocortical correlates were found for the cognitive empathy dimension, whereas affective empathy is related to lower volumes in subcortical structures. Functionally, affective empathy is linked to connectivity between the orbital and cingulate cortices.
Highlights
Empathy is the ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others, and to respond to these feelings in an appropriate way
There were no significant differences in demographical variables between gender groups
Subcortical volumetric analyses showed that participants grouped in the high Empathic Distress scale had significantly higher bilateral thalamus volumes than the low-empathy group, the multivariate test was not statistically significant (Supplementary Table 3)
Summary
Empathy is the ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others, and to respond to these feelings in an appropriate way. Cognitive empathy-related processes such as the Perspective Taking dimension “occur through interactions between limbic and cognitive structures” (Decety et al, 2012). Recent functional MRI (fMRI) studies have reported limbic structures such as the amygdala, the anterior insula, and the anterior cingulate cortex to be part of the neural bases of affective empathy (Lamm et al, 2011; Bernhardt and Singer, 2012; Gonzalez-Liencres et al, 2013). The right anterior insula and the right inferior frontal gyrus seem to be more related to affective-perceptual empathy while the left anterior cingulate cortex is involved in the process of cognitive empathy (Fan et al, 2011). Few studies have investigated the functional connectivity of the brain at rest linked to the ability to empathize as an intrinsic feature (Takeuchi et al, 2014, 2018; Bilevicius et al, 2018) measured by questionnaires
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