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Altered Cortico-Limbic Functional Connectivity During an Empathy Task in Subjects with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

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Abstract

Empathy is a multidimensional construct consisting of cognitive (inferring mental states) and emotional (empathic concern) components. Emotional empathy is severely impaired in individuals affected by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Here, we investigated the neural correlates of such an emotional empathy dysfunction to shed light on the neural circuitry responsible for the social and emotional dysfunction in PTSD. We asked a group of PTSD and a group of healthy controls to solve a Multifaceted Empathy Test, measuring both cognitive and emotional empathy, and investigated the functional connectivity of the cortical areas involved in solving the test. The results revealed that, in healthy individuals, increased neural activity in the frontal cortex modulates activity in the insula while subjects perform the emotional empathy task; whereas, in individuals affected by PTSD, increased activity in limbic regions such the insula and the amygdala modulates activity in the frontal cortex while performing the emotional empathy task. These findings suggest that the lack of cortical top-down control of the frontal cortex on the limbic system in PTSD during empathic processing may explain the emotional and social difficulties experienced by individuals suffering from PTSD.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Vidotto of the University of Padua for allow-ing us to use Brain Voyager QX 2.8 for data analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, Via Vetoio, Località Coppito, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy

    Maria Chiara Pino, Daniela Tempesta & Michele Ferrara

  2. Neuroradiology Department, Foundation IRCCS Neurological Institute Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy

    Alessia Catalucci & Monica Anselmi

  3. Department of Neuroradiology, “San Salvatore” Hospital, L’Aquila, Italy

    Anna Nigri

  4. Department of Psychology, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Giuseppe Iaria

  5. Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Giuseppe Iaria

  6. Department of Applied Clinical Sciences and Biotechnology, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

    Monica Mazza

Authors
  1. Maria Chiara Pino
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  2. Daniela Tempesta
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  8. Monica Mazza
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Correspondence to Maria Chiara Pino.

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Conflict of Interest

Maria Chiara Pino, Daniela Tempesta, Alessia Catalucci, Monica Anselmi, Anna Nigri, Giuseppe Iaria, Michele Ferrara, and Monica Mazza declare no competing financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

Experiment Participants

The study was conducted at the San Salvatore Hospital of L’Aquila, according to the principlesestablished by the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval was obtained by the hospital’s Ethics Committee (ASL1 Avezzano-Sulmona-L’Aquila). Informed consent was obtained from all participants beforeinvestigation.

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In memoriam Massimo Gallucci

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Pino, M.C., Tempesta, D., Catalucci, A. et al. Altered Cortico-Limbic Functional Connectivity During an Empathy Task in Subjects with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 38, 398–405 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-016-9538-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-016-9538-x

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