When differences matter: rTMS/fMRI reveals how differences in dispositional empathy translate to distinct neural underpinnings of self-other distinction in empathy

Self-other distinction is crucial for empathy, since it prevents the confusion of self-experienced emotions with those of others. We aimed to extend our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms of self-other distinction. Thirty-one female participants underwent continuous theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) targeting the right supramarginal gyrus (rSMG), a sub-region of the temporoparietal junction previously shown to be involved in self-other distinction, and the vertex, a cortical control site. Right after stimulation they completed a visuo-tactile empathy task in an MRI scanner. Self-other distinction was assessed by differences in emotion judgments, and brain activity between conditions differing in the requirement for self-other distinction. Effects of brain stimulation on self-other distinction depended on individual differences in dispositional empathic understanding: cTBS of rSMG, compared to vertex, enhanced self-other distinction in participants with lower dispositional empathic understanding, but diminished it in participants with higher empathic understanding. On the neural level, this inverse relationship between empathic disposition and self-other distinction performance was linked to a reduction of cTBS-induced rSMG activity in persons with lower dispositional empathy, and an increase in those with lower dispositional empathy. These opposite cTBS impacts were also associated with two anatomically and functionally distinct networks. These findings open up novel perspectives on the causal role of rSMG in self-other distinction and empathy. They also suggest that considering individual differences may yield novel insights into how brain stimulation affects higher-level affect and cognition, and its neural correlates.

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Emotional Reactivity to Visual Content as Revealed by ERP Component Clustering

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000145 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 135-146 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Miroslaw Wyczesany ◽

Szczepan J. Grzybowski ◽

Jan Kaiser

Keyword(s):

Emotional Reactivity ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Affective State ◽

Occipital Lobe ◽

Stimulus Onset ◽

Emotional States ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Temporoparietal Junction ◽

The Right ◽

The Impact

Abstract. In the study, the neural basis of emotional reactivity was investigated. Reactivity was operationalized as the impact of emotional pictures on the self-reported ongoing affective state. It was used to divide the subjects into high- and low-responders groups. Independent sources of brain activity were identified, localized with the DIPFIT method, and clustered across subjects to analyse the visual evoked potentials to affective pictures. Four of the identified clusters revealed effects of reactivity. The earliest two started about 120 ms from the stimulus onset and were located in the occipital lobe and the right temporoparietal junction. Another two with a latency of 200 ms were found in the orbitofrontal and the right dorsolateral cortices. Additionally, differences in pre-stimulus alpha level over the visual cortex were observed between the groups. The attentional modulation of perceptual processes is proposed as an early source of emotional reactivity, which forms an automatic mechanism of affective control. The role of top-down processes in affective appraisal and, finally, the experience of ongoing emotional states is also discussed.

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Do Empathic Individuals Behave More Prosocially? Neural Correlates for Altruistic Behavior in the Dictator Game and the Dark Side of Empathy

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11070863 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 863

Author(s):

Michael Schaefer ◽

Anja Kühnel ◽

Franziska Rumpel ◽

Matti Gärtner

Keyword(s):

Dictator Game ◽

Empathic Concern ◽

Dark Side ◽

Altruistic Behavior ◽

Temporoparietal Junction ◽

Specific Effects ◽

Significant Relationships ◽

Right Temporoparietal Junction ◽

Neural Underpinnings ◽

The Right

Do empathic individuals behave more prosocially? When we think of highly empathic individuals, we tend to assume that it is likely that those people will also help others. Most theories on empathy reflect this common understanding and claim that the personality trait empathy includes the willingness to help others, but it remains a matter of debate whether empathic individuals really help more. In economics, a prominent demonstration that our behavior is not always based on pure self-interest is the Dictator Game, which measures prosocial decisions in an allocation task. This economic game shows that we are willing to give money to strangers we do not know anything about. The present study aimed to test the relationship between dispositional empathy and prosocial acting by examining the neural underpinnings of prosocial behavior in the Dictator Game. Forty-one participants played different rounds of the Dictator Game while being scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Brain activation in the right temporoparietal junction area was associated with prosocial acting (number of prosocial decisions) and associated with empathic concern. Behavioral results demonstrated that empathic concern and personal distress predicted the number of prosocial decisions, but in a negative way. Correlations with the amount of money spent did not show any significant relationships. We discuss the results in terms of group-specific effects of affective empathy. Our results shed further light on the complex behavioral and neural mechanisms driving altruistic choices.

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Comparing the structure and function of social-cognition-related brain areas in bisexual, heterosexual, and homosexual women and men

10.31234/osf.io/62wvd ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Victoria Klimaj ◽

Adam Safron ◽

David Sylva ◽

A.M. Rosenthal ◽

Meng Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Cognition ◽

Large Scale ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Sex And Gender ◽

Social Environments ◽

Men And Women ◽

Temporoparietal Junction ◽

Mixed Support ◽

The Right

A small number of studies have examined neuroanatomical differences between heterosexual and homosexual men and women. These studies have yielded mixed support for the hypothesis that homosexual individuals possess sex-atypical neural anatomy. However, in addition to differing along dimensions of sex-typicality, non-heterosexual individuals’ brains may be different in other ways, potentially as a result of differences in experience. One way in which sexual minorities may differ from others is in their social experiences. Bisexual individuals in particular may occupy unique social niches and experience complex social environments as a result of sexual and romantic interactions with both men and women, and potentially also in terms of having a less-widely-recognized sexual identity than heterosexual and homosexual individuals. Based on this idea, we hypothesized that bisexual individuals may show increased gray matter volume and activity in two social-cognition-related areas of the brain: the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Contrary to our hypotheses, neither brain structure nor brain activity in the rTPJ and dmPFC were significantly greater in bisexual individuals than in heterosexual and homosexual individuals. Instead, we found larger rTPJ volumes in heterosexual women than in homosexual women. We also found larger relative volumes in the dmPFC in women than in men, consistent with a recent large-scale study of sex differences, and potentially indicative of sex and gender differences in social cognition.

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Transcranialis egyenáram-stimuláció a kognitív idegtudományban – buktatók és megoldások

Ideggyógyászati Szemle ◽

10.18071/isz.74.0171 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 74 (5-6) ◽

pp. 171-182

Author(s):

Orsolya Pesthy ◽

Karolina Janacsek ◽

Dezső Németh

Keyword(s):

Clinical Practice ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Mechanism Of Action ◽

Direct Current ◽

Brain Stimulation ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Noisy Data ◽

Full Understanding ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Potential Problems

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a promising brain stimulation tool which is non-invasive, easy to use and relatively cheap. Since it can change brain activity in a temporal manner, it can contribute to both clinical practice and neuroscientific research. However, the effectiveness of tDCS has been questioned considering the lack of full understanding of its mechanism of action and the seemingly contradictory results. In this review, we aim to provide a summary of potential problems and possible solutions. Our main focus is on the inter-individual differences in the effect of tDCS which can explain the noisy data, thus, controlling for them is important in order to show reliable results. This review is hoped to contribute to maximizing the potential of tDCS by helping future researchers to design replicable studies.

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Distinct Contributions of Nonpredictive and Predictive Peripheral Cues to Visual Conscious Perception: an MEG study

10.1101/2020.12.05.413161 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Alfredo Spagna ◽

Dimitri J. Bayle ◽

Zaira Romeo ◽

Lydia Yahia-Cherif ◽

Ana B. Chica ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Perception ◽

Left Hemisphere ◽

Visual Cues ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Conscious Perception ◽

Spatial Cues ◽

Temporoparietal Junction ◽

Parietal Lobes ◽

The Right ◽

Near Threshold

AbstractDo we need attention to become aware of an external event? We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) in human participants to assess the effects of nonpredictive and predictive supra-threshold peripheral visual cues on the conscious perception of near-threshold Gabor patches. Both nonpredictive and predictive valid cues increased the number of detected targets, and shifted the response criterion towards a more liberal decision. Predictive cues unexpectedly induced a greater sensitivity (d’) for invalid trials than for valid trials. With nonpredictive cues, seen targets were associated with right-lateralized frontoparietal feed-forward and feedback sweeps. For seen targets there was increased connectivity among visual regions, and between these areas and the inferior parietal lobes and the anterior insular cortices (AIC), bilaterally. Valid predictive cues interacted with conscious target detection, with greater activation of areas mostly located in the left hemisphere, especially in the frontoparietal network and temporoparietal junction, and induced an increased connectivity between the right AIC and areas of the visual ventral stream in the seen condition only. Thus, neural activity induced by nonpredictive and predictive spatial cues can enhance conscious visual perception through distinct mechanisms, mostly relying on frontoparietal activity in the right or left hemisphere, respectively. Connectivity involving the AIC participates in shaping the interaction between attention and conscious visual perception.Significance StatementDo we need to pay attention to external objects in order to become aware of them? Characterizing the spatiotemporal dynamics of attentional effects on visual perception is critical to understand how humans process information coming from relevant aspects of their environment. Participants detected near-threshold visual targets preceded by supra-threshold spatial cues with varying degrees of predictivity, while their brain activity was recorded using magnetoencephalography. Results demonstrated that spatial cues, especially when predictive, biased participants’ conscious perception through an early recruitment of frontoparietal regions. This work highlights an interactive pattern between spatial attention and consciousness, as shown by the effects of attention-related regions on visual sensory cortices bilaterally, consistent with the hypothesis that attention is a pathway to conscious perception.

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Attention, awareness, and the right temporoparietal junction

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2026099118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 118 (25) ◽

pp. e2026099118

Author(s):

Andrew I. Wilterson ◽

Samuel A. Nastase ◽

Branden J. Bio ◽

Arvid Guterstam ◽

Michael S. A. Graziano

Keyword(s):

Human Subjects ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Schema Theory ◽

Exogenous Attention ◽

Endogenous Control ◽

Temporoparietal Junction ◽

Behavioral Paradigm ◽

Right Temporoparietal Junction ◽

The Difference ◽

The Right

The attention schema theory posits a specific relationship between subjective awareness and attention, in which awareness is the control model that the brain uses to aid in the endogenous control of attention. In previous experiments, we developed a behavioral paradigm in human subjects to manipulate awareness and attention. The paradigm involved a visual cue that could be used to guide attention to a target stimulus. In task 1, subjects were aware of the cue, but not aware that it provided information about the target. The cue measurably drew exogenous attention to itself. In addition, implicitly, the subjects’ endogenous attention mechanism used the cue to help shift attention to the target. In task 2, subjects were no longer aware of the cue. The cue still measurably drew exogenous attention to itself, yet without awareness of the cue, the subjects’ endogenous control mechanism was no longer able to use the cue to control attention. Thus, the control of attention depended on awareness. Here, we tested the two tasks while scanning brain activity in human volunteers. We predicted that the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) would be active in relation to the process in which awareness helps control attention. This prediction was confirmed. The right TPJ was active in relation to the effect of the cue on attention in task 1; it was not measurably active in task 2. The difference was significant. In our interpretation, the right TPJ is involved in an interaction in which awareness permits the control of attention.

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Serial Recall Order of Category Fluency Words: Exploring Its Neural Underpinnings

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.777838 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Matteo De Marco ◽

Annalena Venneri

Keyword(s):

Serial Order ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Anterior Portion ◽

Temporoparietal Junction ◽

Negatively Associated ◽

Testing Procedures ◽

Item Level ◽

Category Fluency ◽

Neural Underpinnings ◽

The Right

Background: Although performance on the category fluency test (CFT) is influenced by many cognitive functions (i.e., including language, executive functioning and speed of processing), item-level scoring methods of CFT performance might be a promising way to capture aspects of semantic memory that are less influenced by intervenient abilities. One such approach is based on the calculation of correlation coefficients that quantify the association between item-level features and the serial order with which words are recalled (SRO).Methods: We explored the neural underpinnings of 10 of these correlational indices in a sample of 40 healthy adults who completed a classic 1-min CFT and an MRI protocol inclusive of T1-weighted (analysed with voxel-based morphometry) and resting-state fMRI sequences for the evaluation of the default-mode network (DMN). Two sets of linear models were defined to test the association between neural maps and each correlational index: a first set in which major demographic and clinical descriptors were controlled for and a second set in which, additionally, all other 9 correlational indices were regressed out.Results: In the analysis of the DMN, ‘SRO-frequency’, ‘SRO-dominance’ and ‘SRO-body-object interaction’ correlational indices were all negatively associated with the anterior portion of the right temporoparietal junction. The ‘SRO-frequency’ correlational index was also negatively associated with the right dorsal anterior cingulate and the ‘SRO-dominance’ correlational index with the right lateral prefrontal cortex. From the second set of models, the ‘SRO-typicality’ correlational index was positively associated with the left entorhinal cortex. No association was found in relation to grey matter maps.Conclusion: The ability to retrieve more difficult words during CFT performance as measured by the correlational indices between SRO and item-level descriptors is associated with DMN expression in regions deputed to attentional reorienting and processing of salience of infrequent stimuli and dominance status. Of all item-level features, typicality appears to be that most closely linked with entorhinal functioning and may thus play a relevant role in assessing its value in testing procedures for early detection of subtle cognitive difficulties in people with suspected Alzheimer’s degeneration. Although exploratory, these findings warrant further investigations in larger cohorts.

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Individual Differences and Hemispheric Asymmetry While Processing Emotional Words

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000137 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 35 (3) ◽

pp. 137-143 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lindsay M. Niccolai ◽

Thomas Holtgraves

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Hemispheric Asymmetry ◽

Past Research ◽

Decision Task ◽

Depression And Anxiety ◽

Hemispheric Differences ◽

Affective Valence ◽

Emotional Words ◽

Emotion Words ◽

The Right

This research examined differences in the perception of emotion words as a function of individual differences in subclinical levels of depression and anxiety. Participants completed measures of depression and anxiety and performed a lexical decision task for words varying in affective valence (but equated for arousal) that were presented briefly to the right or left visual field. Participants with a lower level of depression demonstrated hemispheric asymmetry with a bias toward words presented to the left hemisphere, but participants with a higher level of depression displayed no hemispheric differences. Participants with a lower level of depression also demonstrated a bias toward positive words, a pattern that did not occur for participants with a higher level of depression. A similar pattern occurred for anxiety. Overall, this study demonstrates how variability in levels of depression and anxiety can influence the perception of emotion words, with patterns that are consistent with past research.

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