Different Brain Responses During Empathy in Autism Spectrum Disorders vs Conduct Disorder & Callous-Unemotional Traits
BACKGROUND:
Deficits
in empathy are reported in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and also underlie
antisocial behavior of individuals with conduct disorder and
callous-unemotional traits (CD/CU+). Many studies suggest that individuals with
ASD are typically impaired in cognitive aspects of empathy, and individuals
with CD/CU+ typically in affective aspects. In the current study, we compared
the neural correlates of cognitive and affective aspects of empathy between
youth with ASD and youth with CD/CU+.
METHODS:
Functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess boys with ASD
(N = 23), boys with CD/CU+ (N = 23), and typically
developing (TD) boys (N = 33), aged 15-19 years. Angry and
fearful faces were presented and participants were asked to either infer the
emotional state from the face (other-task; emotion recognition) or to judge
their own emotional response to the face (self-task; emotional resonance).
RESULTS:
During
emotion recognition, boys with ASD showed reduced responses compared to the
other groups in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). During emotional
resonance, the CD/CU+ and ASD groups showed reduced amygdala responses compared
to the TD controls, boys with ASD showed reduced responses in bilateral
hippocampus, and the CD/CU+ boys showed reduced responses in the inferior
frontal gyrus (IFG) and anterior insula (AI).
CONCLUSION:
Results
suggest differential abnormal brain responses associated with specific aspects
of empathic functioning in ASD and CD/CU+. Decreased amygdala responses in ASD
and CD/CU+ might point to impaired emotion processing in both disorders,
whereas reduced vmPFC responses suggest problems in processing cognitive
aspects of empathy in ASD. Reduced IFG/AI responses, finally, suggest decreased
emotional resonance in CD/CU+.
By: Klapwijk ET1,2, Aghajani M1,2, Colins OF1,2, Marijnissen GM3, Popma A4,5, van Lang ND1,2, van der Wee NJ2,6, Vermeiren RR1,2,4.
- 1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium - Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- 2Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands.
- 3Centrum Autisme Rivierduinen, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- 4Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- 5Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology, Faculty of Law, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- 6Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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