TY - JOUR
T1 - Individual differences in brain structure and self-reported empathy in children
AU - Bray, Katherine O.
AU - Pozzi, Elena
AU - Vijayakumar, Nandita
AU - Richmond, Sally
AU - Deane, Camille
AU - Pantelis, Christos
AU - Anderson, Vicki
AU - Whittle, Sarah
N1 - Funding Information:
Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. This research was funded by the Australian Research Council [DP130103551], the National Health and Medical Research Council (Career Development Fellowship to SW) [1125504]. KB was supported by The Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and the William Georgetti Scholarship. VA was supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Practitioner Research Fellowship (1079478). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - Empathy refers to the understanding and sharing of others’ emotions and comprises cognitive and affective components. Empathy is important for social functioning, and alterations in empathy have been demonstrated in many developmental or psychiatric disorders. While several studies have examined associations between empathy and brain structure in adults, few have investigated this relationship in children. Investigating associations between empathy and brain structure during childhood will help us to develop a deeper understanding of the neural correlates of empathy across the lifespan. A total of 125 children (66 females, mean age 10 years) underwent magnetic resonance imaging brain scans. Grey matter volume and cortical thickness from structural images were examined using the Computational Anatomy Toolbox (CAT12) within Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM12) software. Children completed questionnaire measures of empathy (cognitive empathy, affective empathy: affective sharing, empathic concern, and empathic distress). In hypothesised region of interest analyses, individual differences in affective and cognitive empathy were related to grey matter volume in the insula and the precuneus. Although these relationships were of similar strength to those found in previous research, they did not survive correction for the total number of models computed. While no significant findings were detected between grey matter volume and empathy in exploratory whole-brain analysis, associations were found between cortical thickness and empathic concern in the right precentral gyrus. This study provides preliminary evidence that individual differences in self-reported empathy in children may be related to aspects of brain structure. Findings highlight the need for more research investigating the neurobiological correlates of empathy in children.
AB - Empathy refers to the understanding and sharing of others’ emotions and comprises cognitive and affective components. Empathy is important for social functioning, and alterations in empathy have been demonstrated in many developmental or psychiatric disorders. While several studies have examined associations between empathy and brain structure in adults, few have investigated this relationship in children. Investigating associations between empathy and brain structure during childhood will help us to develop a deeper understanding of the neural correlates of empathy across the lifespan. A total of 125 children (66 females, mean age 10 years) underwent magnetic resonance imaging brain scans. Grey matter volume and cortical thickness from structural images were examined using the Computational Anatomy Toolbox (CAT12) within Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM12) software. Children completed questionnaire measures of empathy (cognitive empathy, affective empathy: affective sharing, empathic concern, and empathic distress). In hypothesised region of interest analyses, individual differences in affective and cognitive empathy were related to grey matter volume in the insula and the precuneus. Although these relationships were of similar strength to those found in previous research, they did not survive correction for the total number of models computed. While no significant findings were detected between grey matter volume and empathy in exploratory whole-brain analysis, associations were found between cortical thickness and empathic concern in the right precentral gyrus. This study provides preliminary evidence that individual differences in self-reported empathy in children may be related to aspects of brain structure. Findings highlight the need for more research investigating the neurobiological correlates of empathy in children.
KW - Affective empathy
KW - Brain structure
KW - Cognitive empathy
KW - Late childhood
KW - Voxel-based morphometry
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127244766&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3758/s13415-022-00993-2
DO - 10.3758/s13415-022-00993-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 35338471
AN - SCOPUS:85127244766
SN - 1530-7026
VL - 22
SP - 1078
EP - 1089
JO - Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience
JF - Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience
IS - 5
ER -