scholarly journals Age-related differences in negative cognitive empathy but similarities in positive affective empathy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Ziaei ◽  
Lena Oestreich ◽  
David C. Reutens ◽  
Natalie C. Ebner
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Empathic Response ◽  
Cingulum Bundle ◽  
Social Cognitive Processes

AbstractEmpathy, among other social-cognitive processes, changes across adulthood. More specifically, cognitive components of empathy (understanding another’s perspective) appear to decline with age, while findings for affective empathy (sharing another’s emotional state) are rather mixed. Structural and functional correlates underlying cognitive and affective empathy in aging and the extent to which valence affects empathic response in brain and behavior are not well understood yet. To fill these research gaps, younger and older adults completed a modified version of the Multifaceted Empathy Test, which measures both cognitive and affective empathy as well as empathic responding to both positive and negative stimuli (i.e., positive vs. negative empathy). Adopting a multimodal imaging approach and applying multivariate analysis, the study found that for cognitive empathy to negative emotions, regions of the salience network including the anterior insula and anterior cingulate were more involved in older than younger adults. For affective empathy to positive emotions, in contrast, younger and older adults recruited a similar brain network including main nodes of the default mode network. Additionally, increased structural microstructure (fractional anisotropy values) of the posterior cingulum bundle (right henisphere) was related to activation of default mode regions during affective empathy for positive emotions in both age groups. These findings provide novel insights into the functional networks subserving cognitive and affective empathy in younger and older adults and highlight the importance of considering valence in empathic response in aging research. Further this study, for the first time, underscores the role of the posterior cingulum bundle in higher-order social-cognitive processes such as empathy, specifically for positive emotions, in aging.

scholarly journals Age-related differences in structural and functional networks involved in empathy for positive and negative emotions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Ziaei ◽  
Lena Oestreich ◽  
David C. Reutens ◽  
Natalie C. Ebner
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Functional Networks ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Empathic Response ◽  
Cingulum Bundle ◽  
Social Cognitive Processes

AbstractEmpathy, among other social-cognitive processes, changes across adulthood. More specifically, cognitive components of empathy (understanding another’s perspective) appear to decline with age, while findings for affective empathy (sharing another’s emotional states) are rather mixed. Structural and functional correlates underlying cognitive and affective empathy in aging and the extent to which valence affects empathic response in brain and behavior are not well understood yet. To fill these research gaps, younger and older participants completed a modified version of the Multifaceted Empathy Test, which measures both cognitive and affective empathy. Adopting a multimodal imaging approach and applying multivariate analysis, the study found that regions of the salience network, including anterior insula and anterior cingulate, were more involved in cognitive empathy to negative emotions in older than younger participants. For affective empathy to positive emotions, in contrast, younger and older participants recruited a similar brain network including main nodes of the default mode network. Additionally, it was found that increased structural integrity (fractional anisotropy values) of the posterior, but not the anterior, cingulum bundle was related to activation of default mode regions during affective empathy for positive stimuli in both age groups. These findings provide novel insights into the functional networks subserving cognitive and affective empathy in younger and older adults and highlight the importance of considering valence in empathic response in aging. Findings from this study, for the first time, underscore a role of posterior cingulum bundle in higher-order social-cognitive processes such as empathy in aging.

scholarly journals AGE-RELATED DECLINES IN SOCIAL COGNITIVE PROCESSES OF OLDER ADULTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S882-S883
Author(s):  
W Quin Yow ◽  
Jiawen Lee ◽  
Xiaoqian Li
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Late Adulthood ◽  
Prosodic Cues ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Social Cognitive Processes ◽  
Referent Object

Abstract Despite current literature suggesting that various social cognitive processes seem to be impaired in late adulthood, e.g., processing of social gaze cues, the trajectory decline of social cognition in late adulthood is not well understood (e.g., Grainger et al., 2018; Paal & Bereczkei, 2007). As part of a multi-institutional research project, we began to systematically investigate whether there is age-related decline in older adults’ ability to infer others’ mental states, integrate multiple referential cues, and identify emotional states of others using prosodic cues. Sixteen older adults aged 71-85, of which 9 were cognitively healthy and 7 with mild-to-moderate dementia, and 7 younger adults aged 19-37 underwent three tasks. In a theory-of-mind story task, participants answered true/false questions about the beliefs of the protagonists in the stories. A cue integration task assessed participants’ ability to integrate the experimenter’s gaze and semantic cues to identify a referent object. In an emotion-prosody task, participants judged whether the speaker sounded happy or sad in low-pass filtered audio. Non-parametric tests revealed that younger adults outperformed both groups of older adults (both ps=.001) in inferring the protagonists’ beliefs in the stories. Younger adults were also better and more accurate than both groups of older adults in integrating cues to identify the referent object and in using prosodic cues to identify emotional states respectively (ps<.001). Both groups of older adults did not differ significantly from each other in the tasks. These findings provide emerging and important insights into the decline of social cognitive processes in late adulthood.

Social-cognitive processes in preschoolers' selective trust: Three cultures compared.

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 579-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda J. Lucas ◽  
Charlie Lewis ◽  
F. Cansu Pala ◽  
Katie Wong ◽  
Damon Berridge
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Selective Trust ◽  
Social Cognitive Processes

Initial Impressions of Others

2012 ◽  
pp. 336-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
James S. Uleman ◽  
S. Adil Saribay
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Attribution Theory ◽  
Impression Formation ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Controlled Attention ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Cognitive Processes ◽  
The Many ◽  
And Control ◽  
Initial Impressions

“Initial impressions” bring together personality and social psychology like no other field of study—“personality” because (1) impressions are about personalities, and (2) perceivers’ personalities affect these impressions; and “social” because (3) social cognitive processes of impression formation, and (4) sociocultural contexts have major effects on impressions. To make these points, we first review how people explicitly describe others: the terms we use, how these descriptions reveal our theories about others, the important roles of traits and types (including stereotypes) in these descriptions, and other prominent frameworks (e.g., narratives and social roles). Then we highlight recent research on the social cognitive processes underlying these descriptions: automatic and controlled attention, the many effects of primes (semantic and affective) and their dependence on contexts, the acquisition of valence, spontaneous inferences about others, and the interplay of automatic and control processes. Third, we examine how accurate initial impressions are, and what accuracy means, as well as deception and motivated biases and distortions. Fourth, we review recent research on effects of target features, perceiver features, and relations between targets and perceivers. Finally, we look at frameworks for understanding explanations, as distinct from descriptions: attribution theory, theory of mind, and simulation theory.

scholarly journals Vagal Tone Differences in Empathy Level Elicited by Different Emotions and a Co-Viewer

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 3136
Author(s):  
Suhhee Yoo ◽  
Mincheol Whang
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Vagal Tone ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Emotional Intensity ◽  
Factor Level ◽  
Positive Valence ◽  
Valence And Arousal ◽  
Different Levels

Empathy can bring different benefits depending on what kind of emotions people empathize with. For example, empathy with negative emotions can raise donations to charity while empathy with positive emotions can increase participation during remote education. However, few studies have focused on the physiological differences depending on what kind of emotions people empathize with. Furthermore, co-viewer can influence the elicitation of different levels of empathy, but this has been less discussed. Therefore, this study investigated vagal response differences according to each empathy factor level elicited by different emotions and co-viewer. Fifty-nine participants were asked to watch 4 videos and to evaluate subjective valence, arousal scores, and undertake an empathy questionnaire, which included cognitive, affective and identification empathy. Half of the participants watched the videos alone and the other half watched the videos with a co-viewer. Valence and arousal scores were categorized into three levels to figure out what kind of emotions they empathized with. Empathy level (high vs. low) was determined based on the self-report scores. Two-way MANOVA revealed an interaction effect of empathy level and emotions. High affective empathy level is associated with higher vagal response regardless of what kind of emotions they empathized with. However, vagal response differences in other empathy factor level showed a different pattern depending on what kind of emotions that participant empathized with. A high cognitive empathy level showed lower vagal responses when participants felt negative or positive valence. High identification level also showed increased cognitive burden when participants empathized with negative and neutral valence. The results implied that emotions and types of empathy should be considered when measuring empathic responses using vagal tone. Two-way MANOVA revealed empathic response differences between co-viewer condition and emotion. Participants with a co-viewer felt higher vagal responses and self-reporting empathy scores only when participants empathized with arousal. This implied that the effect of a co-viewer may impact on empathic responses only when participants felt higher emotional intensity.

Effectiveness of empathy enhancement programs for social workers working with older adults: A quasi-experimental study

2020 ◽  
pp. 146801732094059
Author(s):  
Areum Han ◽  
Tae Hui Kim
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Experimental Study ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Compassion Satisfaction ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Experimental Group

Summary Empathy is an essential attribute required for care providers to provide quality care and effective relationship-based practice. Cognitive empathy is understanding another person’s experiences, concerns, and perspectives, and affective empathy is sharing another person’s emotion. Cognitive empathy was found to be a significant protector to burnout and stress, while affective empathy was found to be a significant contributor to compassion satisfaction among social workers. This quasi-experimental study assessed the effectiveness of two empathy enhancement programs on 105 social workers working with older adults in South Korea. The experimental group (n = 52) received a simulation-based empathy enhancement program along with a brief mindfulness practice session, and the comparison group (n = 53) watched a 30-minute-long educational video about empathy. Data were collected prior to and two weeks after the intervention. Findings The experimental group showed significantly lower levels of psychosocial stress compared to the comparison group. It also showed significantly higher levels of cognitive empathy and significantly lower levels of compassion fatigue at posttest. Furthermore, the comparison group demonstrated significantly higher levels of a unidimensional factor of empathy, compassion satisfaction, and caring efficacy at posttest. Application Pre- and post-test differences, in different outcome measures from the groups, indicate the benefits of each empathy enhancement program on social workers working with older adults. In particular, the present study validates that the simulation-based empathy enhancement program can enhance the cognitive empathy of social workers and reduce burnout and stress. A further randomized controlled trial study is needed to examine the program’s effectiveness with minimal bias and confounding factors.

Effects of left dlPFC modulation on social cognitive processes following food sampling

Appetite ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 73-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Hall ◽  
Cassandra J. Lowe ◽  
Adrian B. Safati ◽  
Huaqi Li ◽  
Emilia B. Klassen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Left Dlpfc ◽  
Social Cognitive Processes
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