Independent elevation of peripheral oxytocin concentrations and reduction in cognitive empathy during 4-fluoroamphetamine intoxication.

OBJECTIVES: 4-Fluoroamphetamine (4-FA) is a novel psychoactive substance with a pharmacological profile and reported subjective effects (e.g., empathy) intermediate between 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and amphetamine. Studies have shown that MDMA and amphetamine increase emotional empathy without affecting cognitive empathy; MDMA simultaneously leads to elevated levels of oxytocin, unrelated to its behavioral effects. The aim of the present study was to assess the reported enhancement of empathy by 4-FA, to assess its effects on oxytocin, and to test potential associations between both. METHODS: Twelve healthy poly-drug users were included in a double-blind placebo-controlled two-way crossover study. Treatments were 4-FA (100 mg) and placebo; empathy was assessed by means of the multifaceted empathy test, and blood samples were taken before and after treatment administration to determine oxytocin concentrations. RESULTS: 4-FA reduced cognitive empathy, whereas emotional empathy was left unaffected. One hour after treatment, plasma oxytocin levels were significantly increased compared with placebo. Behavioral and hormonal effects were unrelated. CONCLUSION: Although 4-FA shares its pharmacological mechanism with MDMA and amphetamine, current findings seem to indicate that it affects empathy differently. The 4-FA-induced increase in oxytocin levels was independent of behavioral effects, which confirms previous findings that drug-induced effects on peripheral oxytocin levels are not associated with empathy.

The Effect of High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus on Empathy in Healthy Individuals.

Empathy, including cognitive and emotional empathy, refers to the ability to infer the mental states of others and to the capacity to share emotions. The neural mechanisms involved in empathy are complex and not yet fully understood, and previous studies have shown that both cognitive and emotional empathy are closely associated with the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). In this study, we examined whether empathy can be modulated by high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) of the right IFG. Twenty-three healthy participants took part in all three experimental conditions (i.e., anodal, cathodal and sham stimulation) in a randomized order. Participants then completed the Chinese version of the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET), which assesses both cognitive and emotional empathy. The results show that scores obtained for cognitive empathy following cathodal stimulation are significantly lower than those obtained following sham stimulation. In addition, scores obtained for cognitive empathy following anodal stimulation are higher than those obtained following sham stimulation, though the difference is only marginally significant. However, the results fail to show whether the stimulation of the right IFG via HD-tDCS plays a role in emotional empathy. Our results suggest that the right IFG plays a key role in cognitive empathy and indicate that HD-tDCS can regulate cognitive empathy by inducing excitability changes in the right IFG.

The role of physiological arousal for self-reported emotional empathy.

The capacity to represent the emotional and mental states of others is referred to by the concept of empathy. Empathy further differentiates into an emotional and a cognitive subcomponent, which in turn is known to require a tacit perspective-taking process. However, whether the empathizer by himself needs to enter an affective state as a necessary precondition for emotional empathy remains a matter of debate. If empathy would require a vicarious emotional reaction, specific physiological markers of affective responding should be detectable in the empathizing person. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between self-reported empathy and psychophysiological responses in young, healthy participants. We assessed emotional and cognitive empathy with the Multifaceted Empathy Test on the one hand and the corresponding heart rate and skin conductance responses (SCR), affective startle modulation and heart rate variability on the other. We found a negative relationship between SCR and self-reported emotional empathy: higher SCR to emotional stimuli predicted lower empathy ratings. We conclude that physiological arousal is not necessary and might even diminish empathy for others.

Subjective experience of emotions and emotional empathy in paranoid schizophrenia.

Unlike the cognitive dimensions, alterations of the affective components of empathy in schizophrenia are less well understood. This study explored cognitive and affective dimensions of empathy in the context of the subjective experience of aspects of emotion processing, including emotion regulation, emotional contagion, and interpersonal distress, in individuals with schizophrenia and healthy controls. In addition, the predictive value of these parameters on psychosocial function was investigated. Fifty-five patients with paranoid schizophrenia and 55 healthy controls were investigated using the Multifaceted Empathy Test and Interpersonal Reactivity Index, as well as the Subjective Experience of Emotions and Emotional Contagion Scales. Individuals with schizophrenia showed impairments of cognitive empathy, but maintained emotional empathy. They reported significantly more negative emotional contagion, overwhelming emotions, lack of emotions, and symbolization of emotions by imagination, but less self-control of emotional expression than healthy persons. Besides cognitive empathy, the experience of a higher extent of overwhelming emotions and of less interpersonal distress predicted psychosocial function in patients. People with schizophrenia and healthy controls showed diverging patterns of how cognitive and emotional empathy related to the subjective aspects of emotion processing. It can be assumed that variables of emotion processing are important moderators of empathic abilities in schizophrenia.