Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (대한소아청소년정신의학회)
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Neural Correlates of Cognitive and Emotional Empathy in Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder

자폐스펙트럼장애 환자에서의 인지적 공감 및 정서적 공감의 신경 상관물

  • Chung, Seungwon (Department of Psychiatry, Chungbuk National University Hospital) ;
  • Son, Jung-Woo (Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University) ;
  • Lee, Seungbok (Department of Psychology, Chungbuk National University) ;
  • Ghim, Hei-Rhee (Department of Psychology, Chungbuk National University) ;
  • Lee, Sang-Ick (Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University) ;
  • Shin, Chul-Jin (Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University) ;
  • Kim, Siekyeong (Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University) ;
  • Ju, Gawon (Department of Psychiatry, Chungbuk National University Hospital) ;
  • Choi, Sang Cheol (Didim Psychiatric Clinic) ;
  • Kim, Yang Yeol (SeoulTop Child Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic) ;
  • Koo, Young Jin (MindDoctor's Clinic for Junior)
  • 정승원 (충북대학교병원 정신건강의학과) ;
  • 손정우 (충북대학교 의과대학 정신건강의학교실) ;
  • 이승복 (충북대학교 심리학과) ;
  • 김혜리 (충북대학교 심리학과) ;
  • 이상익 (충북대학교 의과대학 정신건강의학교실) ;
  • 신철진 (충북대학교 의과대학 정신건강의학교실) ;
  • 김시경 (충북대학교 의과대학 정신건강의학교실) ;
  • 주가원 (충북대학교병원 정신건강의학과) ;
  • 최상철 (디딤정신건강의학과의원) ;
  • 김양렬 (서울탑정신건강의학과의원) ;
  • 구영진 (마인드닥터 주니어 정신건강의학과의원)
  • Received : 2016.07.29
  • Accepted : 2016.09.02
  • Published : 2016.09.30
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Abstract

Objectives: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are considered to have problems with empathy. It has recently been suggested that there are two systems for empathy; cognitive and emotional. We aimed to investigate the neural response to cognitive and emotional empathy and elucidate the neurobiological aspects of empathy in patients with ASD. Methods: We recruited patients with ASD (N=17, ASD group) and healthy controls (HC) (N=22, HC group) for an functional magnetic resonance imaging study. All of the subjects were scanned while performing cognitive and emotional empathy tasks. The differences in brain activation between the groups were assessed by contrasting their neural activity during the tasks. Results: During both tasks, the ASD group showed greater neural activities in the bilateral occipital area compared to the HC group. The ASD group showed more activation in the bilateral precunei only during the emotional empathy task. No brain regions were more activated in the HC group than in the ASD group during the cognitive empathy task. While performing the emotional empathy task, the HC group exhibited greater neural activities in the left middle frontal gyrus and right anterior cingulate gyrus than the ASD group. Conclusion: This study showed that the brain regions associated with cognitive and emotional empathy in ASD patients differed from those in healthy individuals. The results of this study suggest that individuals with ASD might have defects both in cognitive empathy and in emotional empathy.

Keywords

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