Journal article
Altered empathy-related resting-state functional connectivity in patients with bipolar disorder
Chinese Academy of Sciences1
Peking University2
Castle Peak Hospital3
The University of Hong Kong4
Cognitive Systems, Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark5
Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark6
Empathy is the ability to generate emotional responses (i.e., cognitive empathy) and to make cognitive inferences (i.e., afective empathy) to other people’s emotions. Empirical evidence suggests that patients with bipolar disorder (BD) exhibit impairment in cognitive empathy, but fndings on afective empathy are inconsistent.
Few studies have examined the neural mechanisms of cognitive and afective empathy in patients with BD. In this study, we examined the empathy-related restingstate functional connectivity (rsFC) in BD patients. Thirty-seven patients with BD and 42 healthy controls completed the self-report Questionnaires of Cognitive and Afective Empathy (QCAE), the Yoni behavioural task, and resting-sate fMRI brain scans.
Group comparison of empathic ability was conducted. The interactions between group and empathic ability on seed-based whole brain rsFC were examined. BD patients scored lower on the Online Simulation subscale of the QCAE and showed positive correlations between cognitive empathy and the rsFC of the dorsal Medial Prefrontal Cortex (dmPFC) with the lingual gyrus.
The correlations between cognitive empathy and the rsFC of the temporal–parietal junction (TPJ) with the fusiform gyrus, the cerebellum and the parahippocampus were weaker in BD patients than that in healthy controls. These fndings highlight the underlying neural mechanisms of empathy impairments in BD patients.
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | Springer Berlin Heidelberg |
Year: | 2021 |
Pages: | 839-848 |
ISSN: | 14338491 and 09401334 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1007/s00406-021-01305-4 |
ORCIDs: | 0000-0002-3414-450X and Madsen, Kristoffer Hougaard |