@article {806, title = {Acute lesions that impair affective empathy.}, journal = {Brain}, volume = {136}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Aug}, pages = {2539-49}, abstract = {

Functional imaging studies of healthy participants and previous lesion studies have provided evidence that empathy involves dissociable cognitive functions that rely on at least partially distinct neural networks that can be individually impaired by brain damage. These studies converge in support of the proposal that affective empathy--making inferences about how another person feels--engages at least the following areas: prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal gyrus, anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, temporal pole, amygdala and temporoparietal junction. We hypothesized that right-sided lesions to any one of these structures, except temporoparietal junction, would cause impaired affective empathy (whereas bilateral damage to temporoparietal junction would be required to disrupt empathy). We studied 27 patients with acute right hemisphere ischaemic stroke and 24 neurologically intact inpatients on a test of affective empathy. Acute impairment of affective empathy was associated with infarcts in the hypothesized network, particularly temporal pole and anterior insula. All patients with impaired affective empathy were also impaired in comprehension of affective prosody, but many patients with impairments in prosodic comprehension had spared affective empathy. Patients with impaired affective empathy were older, but showed no difference in performance on tests of hemispatial neglect, volume of infarct or sex distribution compared with patients with intact affective empathy.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Brain, Brain Ischemia, brain mapping, Cognition, Emotions, Empathy, Female, Functional Laterality, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Nerve Net, Social Perception, Stroke}, issn = {1460-2156}, doi = {10.1093/brain/awt177}, author = {Leigh, Richard and Oishi, Kenichi and Hsu, John and Lindquist, Martin and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Jarso, Samson and Crainiceanu, Ciprian and Mori, Susumu and Hillis, Argye E} } @article {829, title = {Developmental changes in within- and between-network connectivity between late childhood and adulthood.}, journal = {Neuropsychologia}, volume = {51}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jan}, pages = {156-67}, abstract = {

A number of behavioral changes occur between late childhood and adulthood, including maturation of social cognition, reward receptivity, impulsiveness, risk-taking and cognitive control. Although some of these abilities show linear improvements with age, some abilities may temporarily worsen, reflecting both the restructuring and/or strengthening of connections within some brain systems. The current study uses resting state functional connectivity to examine developmental differences between late childhood and adulthood in task positive (TP) regions, which play a role in cognitive control functions, and task negative (TN) regions, which play a role in social cognition, self-referential, and internally-directed thought. Within the TP network, developmental differences in connectivity were found with the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Within the TN network, developmental differences in connectivity were found with a broad area of the medial prefrontal cortex and the right parahippocampal gyrus. Connections between the two networks also showed significant developmental differences. Stronger anticorrelations were found in the TN maps of the adult group for the right anterior insula/inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral anterior inferior parietal lobule, bilateral superior parietal lobule and an anterior portion of the right posterior cingulate cortex. There was a significant brain-behavior relationship between the strength of anticorrelation in these regions and inhibitory control performance on two Go/No-go tasks suggesting that the development of anticorrelations between late childhood and adulthood supports mature inhibitory control. Overall, maturation of these networks occurred in specific regions which are associated with cognitive control of goal-directed behavior, including those involved in working memory, social cognition, and inhibitory control.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Analysis of Variance, Brain, brain mapping, Child, Child Development, Cognition, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Inhibition (Psychology), Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Neural Pathways, Neuropsychological Tests, Oxygen, Reaction Time, Young Adult}, issn = {1873-3514}, doi = {10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.11.011}, author = {Barber, Anita D and Caffo, Brian S and Pekar, James J and Mostofsky, Stewart H} } @article {846, title = {Brain mediators of predictive cue effects on perceived pain.}, journal = {J Neurosci}, volume = {30}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Sep 29}, pages = {12964-77}, abstract = {

Information about upcoming pain strongly influences pain experience in experimental and clinical settings, but little is known about the brain mechanisms that link expectation and experience. To identify the pathways by which informational cues influence perception, analyses must jointly consider both the effects of cues on brain responses and the relationship between brain responses and changes in reported experience. Our task and analysis strategy were designed to test these relationships. Auditory cues elicited expectations for barely painful or highly painful thermal stimulation, and we assessed how cues influenced human subjects{\textquoteright} pain reports and brain responses to matched levels of noxious heat using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We used multilevel mediation analysis to identify brain regions that (1) are modulated by predictive cues, (2) predict trial-to-trial variations in pain reports, and (3) formally mediate the relationship between cues and reported pain. Cues influenced heat-evoked responses in most canonical pain-processing regions, including both medial and lateral pain pathways. Effects on several regions correlated with pretask expectations, suggesting that expectancy plays a prominent role. A subset of pain-processing regions, including anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and thalamus, formally mediated cue effects on pain. Effects on these regions were in turn mediated by cue-evoked anticipatory activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventral striatum, areas not previously directly implicated in nociception. These results suggest that activity in pain-processing regions reflects a combination of nociceptive input and top-down information related to expectations, and that anticipatory processes in OFC and striatum may play a key role in modulating pain processing.

}, keywords = {Adult, Brain, Cognition, Cues, Female, Hot Temperature, Humans, Male, Pain, Pain Threshold, Perception, Physical Stimulation}, issn = {1529-2401}, doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0057-10.2010}, author = {Atlas, Lauren Y and Bolger, Niall and Lindquist, Martin A and Wager, Tor D} }