Empathy and resting-state functional connectivity in children

Abstract

Empathy, which is important for social functioning and mental health, is recognized to have both cognitive and affective components. While several studies have demonstrated unique neural underpinnings of empathy components in adults, few have investigated this in young people. Investigating associations between empathy and brain functional connectivity during childhood is beneficial to begin to build a comprehensive picture of the neural correlates of empathy across the lifespan. One hundred and twelve children (52% female, mean age 10 years) underwent magnetic resonance imaging brain scans including a resting-state sequence and completed empathy self-report measures. Seed-to-whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity analyses demonstrated that higher affective empathy (affective sharing and empathic distress) was associated with weaker connectivity between key hubs of the default mode network (DMN) and other widespread areas in the brain. Analyses of resting-state networks demonstrated that higher cognitive empathy was associated with both stronger and weaker connectivity between dorsal and lateral regions of the DMN and regions outside of the DMN, including the pre- and postcentral gyrus, and the cerebellum. Higher affective sharing was associated with greater connectivity between the anterior salience network and the pre- and postcentral gyrus. However, these associations did not withstand correction for multiple models. While interpretations should be made cautiously, findings suggest wide-ranging and diffuse connectivity patterns may be related to several components of empathy in children. These findings could indicate a more complex picture of the neural correlates of empathy processes in childhood, with less specialization and more widespread involvement of regions and networks. Future studies should attempt to replicate these findings using different measurement approaches.