Subgenual cingulate activity reflects individual differences in empathic concern

Roland Zahn; Ricardo de Oliveira-Souza; Ivanei Bramati; Griselda Garrido; Jorge Moll

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2009.03.090

Subgenual cingulate activity reflects individual differences in empathic concern

Roland Zahn, Ricardo de Oliveira-Souza, Ivanei Bramati, Griselda Garrido, Jorge Moll

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Recent fMRI studies linked subgenual cingulate cortex (SCC) activity with feelings of guilt for acting counter to social values and altruistic donations towards societal causes. We hypothesized that SCC activity across those different tasks was driven by feelings of attachment. In order to investigate this further, we used fMRI to probe the association of empathic concern and strength of SCC activation in response to guilt- and compassion-evoking verbal descriptions of social behaviour. We were able to confirm our prediction that participants with higher empathic concern had increased activity in the SCC in the guilt condition, whereas there was no association for compassion. These results shed new light on the role of the SCC which shows abnormalities in clinical depression. Crown Copyright © 2009.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	107-110
Number of pages	3
Journal	Neuroscience letters
Volume	457
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2009.03.090
Publication status	Published - 26 Jun 2009

Keywords

Empathy
Individual differences
Major depression
Moral emotions
Social cognition
Subgenual cingulate cortex

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10.1016/j.neulet.2009.03.090

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title = "Subgenual cingulate activity reflects individual differences in empathic concern",

abstract = "Recent fMRI studies linked subgenual cingulate cortex (SCC) activity with feelings of guilt for acting counter to social values and altruistic donations towards societal causes. We hypothesized that SCC activity across those different tasks was driven by feelings of attachment. In order to investigate this further, we used fMRI to probe the association of empathic concern and strength of SCC activation in response to guilt- and compassion-evoking verbal descriptions of social behaviour. We were able to confirm our prediction that participants with higher empathic concern had increased activity in the SCC in the guilt condition, whereas there was no association for compassion. These results shed new light on the role of the SCC which shows abnormalities in clinical depression. Crown Copyright {\textcopyright} 2009.",

keywords = "Empathy, Individual differences, Major depression, Moral emotions, Social cognition, Subgenual cingulate cortex",

author = "Roland Zahn and {de Oliveira-Souza}, Ricardo and Ivanei Bramati and Griselda Garrido and Jorge Moll",

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AU - Zahn, Roland

AU - de Oliveira-Souza, Ricardo

AU - Bramati, Ivanei

AU - Garrido, Griselda

AU - Moll, Jorge

PY - 2009/6/26

Y1 - 2009/6/26

N2 - Recent fMRI studies linked subgenual cingulate cortex (SCC) activity with feelings of guilt for acting counter to social values and altruistic donations towards societal causes. We hypothesized that SCC activity across those different tasks was driven by feelings of attachment. In order to investigate this further, we used fMRI to probe the association of empathic concern and strength of SCC activation in response to guilt- and compassion-evoking verbal descriptions of social behaviour. We were able to confirm our prediction that participants with higher empathic concern had increased activity in the SCC in the guilt condition, whereas there was no association for compassion. These results shed new light on the role of the SCC which shows abnormalities in clinical depression. Crown Copyright © 2009.

AB - Recent fMRI studies linked subgenual cingulate cortex (SCC) activity with feelings of guilt for acting counter to social values and altruistic donations towards societal causes. We hypothesized that SCC activity across those different tasks was driven by feelings of attachment. In order to investigate this further, we used fMRI to probe the association of empathic concern and strength of SCC activation in response to guilt- and compassion-evoking verbal descriptions of social behaviour. We were able to confirm our prediction that participants with higher empathic concern had increased activity in the SCC in the guilt condition, whereas there was no association for compassion. These results shed new light on the role of the SCC which shows abnormalities in clinical depression. Crown Copyright © 2009.

KW - Empathy

KW - Individual differences

KW - Major depression

KW - Moral emotions

KW - Social cognition

KW - Subgenual cingulate cortex

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DO - 10.1016/j.neulet.2009.03.090

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VL - 457

SP - 107

EP - 110

JO - Neuroscience letters

JF - Neuroscience letters

IS - 2

ER -

Subgenual cingulate activity reflects individual differences in empathic concern

Abstract

Keywords

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