Anatomical differences in empathy related brain areas: A voxel-based morphometry study
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1
The University of Queensland, School of Psychology, Australia
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2
The University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, United States
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3
The University of Chicago, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, United States
Understanding empathy from a neuroscientific perspective has taken precedence recently with several fMRI studies associating different brain regions with different components of empathy. A recent meta-analysis across 40 fMRI studies revealed that affective empathy (vicariously sharing others emotions) is most often associated with activity in the insula, whereas cognitive empathy (reasoning about others emotions) is most often associated with activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and adjacent dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dACC/dmPFC; Fan et al., 2011). To date, however, it remains unclear whether individual differences in brain morphometry in these regions underlie different capabilities in affective and cognitive empathy. In order to test this hypothesis, we used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to analyse grey matter density using scores from an established empathy measure (Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy; QCAE) as regressors. One hundred and seventy-six participants completed the QCAE and underwent MRI in order to acquire a high-resolution, three-dimensional T1-weighted image. A factor analysis of the questionnaire scores revealed two distinct factors of empathy, affective and cognitive, which confirmed the validity of the QCAE. VBM results revealed grey matter density differences associated with the different constructs of empathy, whereby, higher scores of affective empathy were related to greater grey matter density in the insula and higher scores of cognitive empathy were related to greater grey matter density in the dACC/dmPFC. Taken together, the results shown here provide validation for empathy being a multi-component construct, suggesting that affective and cognitive empathy are differentially represented in brain morphometry.
Keywords:
Empathy,
MRI,
voxel-based morphometry,
affective empathy,
cognitive empathy
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Emotional and Social Processes
Citation:
Eres
R,
Decety
J,
Louis
W and
Molenberghs
P
(2015). Anatomical differences in empathy related brain areas: A voxel-based morphometry study.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00187
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Robert Eres, The University of Queensland, School of Psychology, Brisbane, Australia, r.eres@uq.edu.au