Empathy is associated with dynamic change in prefrontal brain electrical activity during positive emotion in children

Child Development

Volumn 80, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 1210-1231

  Light, Sharee N ^a   Coan, James A ^b   Zahn Waxler, Carolyn ^a   Frye, Corrina ^a   Goldsmith, H Hill ^a   Davidson, Richard J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AFFECT; ARTICLE; CHILD; ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY; EMPATHY; EVOKED RESPONSE; FEMALE; HEMISPHERIC DOMINANCE; HUMAN; MALE; METABOLISM; NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING; PHYSIOLOGY; POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY; PREFRONTAL CORTEX; QUESTIONNAIRE;

AFFECT; CHILD; ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY; EMPATHY; EVOKED POTENTIALS; FEMALE; FUNCTIONAL LATERALITY; HUMANS; MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING; MALE; POSITRON-EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY; PREFRONTAL CORTEX; QUESTIONNAIRES;

EID: 67650601897     PISSN: 00093920     EISSN: 14678624     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01326.x     Document Type: Article

References (59)

1. Brothers, L. (1990). The neural basis of primate social communication. Motivation and Emotion, 14, 81 91.
2. Cacioppo, J. T. (2004). Feelings and emotions: Roles for electrophysiological markers. Biological Psychology, 67, 235 243. (Pubitemid 38582081)
3. Christoff, K. Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2000). The frontopolar cortex and human cognition: Evidence for a rostrocaudal hierarchical organization within the human prefrontal cortex. Psychobiology, 28, 168 186. (Pubitemid 30480473)
4. Coan, J. A. Allen, J. J. (2004). Frontal EEG asymmetry as a moderator and mediator of emotion. Biological Psychology, 67, 7 49. (Pubitemid 38582072)
5. Cohen, J. (1968). Weighted kappa: Nominal scale agreement with provision for scaled disagreement or partial credit. Psychological Bulletin, 70, 213 220.
6. Davidson, R. J. (2004). What does the prefrontal cortex "do" in affect: Perspectives in frontal EEG asymmetry research. Biological Psychology, 67, 219 234.
7. Davidson, R. J. Fox, N. A. (1982). Asymmetrical brain activity discriminates between positive and negative affective stimuli in human infants. Science, 218, 1235 1237. (Pubitemid 13224836)
8. Davidson, R. J., Jackson, D. C. Larsen, C. L. (2000). Human electroencephalography. In J. T. Cacioppo, L. G. Tassinary G. G. Berntson (Eds Handbook of psychophysiology (pp. 27 52). New York : Cambridge University Press.
9. Davidson, R. J., Pizzagalli, D., Nitschke, J. B. Putnam, K. M. (2002). Depression: Perspectives from affective neuroscience. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 545 574.
10. Davis, M. H. (1996). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Boulder : Westview Press.
11. Decety, J. Moriguchi, Y. (2007). The empathic brain and its dysfunction in psychiatric populations: Implications for intervention across different clinical conditions. BioPsychoSocial Medicine, 1, 22.
12. Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Murphy, B., Karbon, M., Maszk, P., Smith, M., et al. (1994). The relations of emotionality and regulation to dispositional and situational empathy-related responding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 776 797.
13. Eslinger, P. J. (1998). Neurological and neuropsychological bases of empathy. European Neurology, 39, 193 199. (Pubitemid 28230397)
14. Fan, Y. Han, S. (2008). Temporal dynamic of neural mechanisms involved in empathy for pain: An event-related brain potential study. Neuropsychologia, 46, 160 173.
15. Frith, U. Frith, C. D. (2003). Development and neurophysiology of mentalizing. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 358, 459 473. (Pubitemid 36386247)
16. Gable, P. A. Harmon-Jones, E. (2008). Relative left frontal cortical activation to appetitive stimuli: Considering the role of individual differences. Psychophysiology, 45, 275 278. (Pubitemid 351197149)
17. Goldsmith, H. H., Reilly, J., Lemery, K. S., Longley, S. Prescott, A. (1995). Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery: Preschool version. Unpublished manuscript.
18. Grattan, L. M., Bloomer, R. H., Archambault, F. X. Eslinger, P. J. (1994). Cognitive flexibility and empathy after frontal lobe lesion. Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neurology, 7, 251 259.
19. Grattan, L. M. Eslinger, P. J. (1989). Empirical study of empathy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 1521 1522.
20. Gusnard, D. A., Akbudak, E., Shulman, G. L. Raichle, M. E. (2001). Medial prefrontal cortex and self-referential mental activity: Relation to a default mode of brain function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 98, 4259 4264. (Pubitemid 32249932)
21. Hamann, S. B., Ely, T. D., Hoffman, J. M. Kilts, C. D. (2002). Ecstasy and agony: Activation of the human amygdala in positive and negative emotion. Psychological Science, 13, 135 141. (Pubitemid 41692312)
22. Harmon-Jones, E. (2004). Insights on asymmetrical frontal brain activity gleaned from research on anger and cognitive dissonance. Biological Psychology, 67, 51 76.
23. Hastings, P. D., Zahn-Waxler, C., Robinson, J., Usher, B. Bridges, D. (2000). The development of concern for others in children with behavior problems. Developmental Psychology, 36, 531 546.
24. Herrington, J. D., Mohanty, A., Kovan, N. S., Fisher, J. E., Stewart, J. L., Banich, M. T., et al. (2005). Emotion-modulated performance and activity in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Emotion, 5, 200 207. (Pubitemid 40993309)
25. Ikes, W. (1997). Empathic accuracy. New York : Guilford.
26. Jabbi, M., Swart, M. Keysers, C. (2007). Empathy for positive and negative emotions in the gustatory cortex. Neuroimage, 34, 1744 1753. (Pubitemid 46187071)
27. Jackson, P. L., Meltzoff, A. N. Decety, J. (2005). How do we perceive the pain of others? A window into the neural processes involved in empathy. Neuroimage, 24, 771 779. (Pubitemid 40094559)
28. Kensinger, E. A. Schacter, D. L. (2006). Processing emotional pictures and words: Effects of valence and arousal. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 6, 110 126. (Pubitemid 44350138)
29. Kringelbach, M. L. Rolls, E. T. (2004). The functional neuroanatomy of the human orbitofrontal cortex: Evidence from neuroimaging and neuropsychology. Progress in Neurobiology, 72, 341 372. (Pubitemid 38626161)
30. Lamm, C., Nusbaum, H. C., Meltzoff, A. N. Decety, J. (2007). What are you feeling? Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the modulation of sensory and affective responses during empathy for pain. PLoS ONE, 12, 1 16.
31. Lipps, T. (1903). Einfühlung, inner nachahmung, und organempfindaungen. In M. Rader (Ed A modern book of esthetics (pp. 374 382). New York : Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
32. Miller, E. K. Cohen, J. D. (2001). An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24, 167 202. (Pubitemid 32695227)
33. Moll, J., Eslinger, P. J. de Oliveira-Souza, R. (2001). Frontopolar and anterior temporal cortex activation in a moral judgment task. Arquivos de Neuropsiquiatria, 59, 657 664.
34. Moriguchi, Y., Decety, J., Ohnishi, T., Maeda, M., Mori, T., Nemoro, K., et al. (2007). Empathy and judging other's pain: An fMRI study of alexithymia. Cerebral Cortex, 17, 2223 2234. (Pubitemid 47283694)
35. Nauta, W. J. H. (1971). The problem of the frontal lobe: A reinterpretation. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 8, 167 187.
36. Niedermeyer, E. (1997). Alpha rhythms as physiological and abnormal phenomena. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 26, 31 49. (Pubitemid 27277684)
37. Nitschke, J. B., Nelson, E. E., Rusch, B. D., Fox, A. S., Oakes, T. R. Davidson, R. J. (2004). Orbitofrontal cortex tracks positive mood in mothers viewing pictures of their newborn infants. Neuroimage, 30, 511 525.
38. Oakes, T. R., Pizzagalli, D. A., Hendrick, A. M., Horras, K. A., Larson, C. L., Abercrombie, H. C., et al. (2004). Functional coupling of simultaneous electrical and metabolic activity in the human brain. Human Brain Mapping, 21, 257 270. (Pubitemid 38468839)
39. Pfeifer, M., Goldsmith, H. H., Davidson, R. J. Rickman, M. (2002). Continuity and change in inhibited and uninhibited children. Child Development, 73, 1474 1485. (Pubitemid 41692399)
40. Pizzagalli, D. A., Oakes, T. R., Fox, A. S., Chung, M. K., Larson, C. L., Abercrombie, H. C., et al. (2004). Functional but not structural subgenual prefrontal cortex abnormalities in melancholia. Molecular Psychiatry, 9, 393 405. (Pubitemid 38534700)
41. Pochon, J. B., Levy, R., Fossati, P., Lehericy, S., Poline, J. B., Pillon, B., et al. (2002). The neural system that bridges reward and cognition in humans: An fMRI study. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 99, 5669 5674. (Pubitemid 34411608)
42. Preston, S. D. De Waal, F. (2002). Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25, 1 72.
43. Raudenbush, S. W., Bryk, A. S., Cheong, Y. F. Congdon, R. T. (2004). HLM 6: Hierarchical linear and non-linear modeling. Lincolnwood, IL : Scientific Software International.
44. Robinson, J. L., Emde, R. N. Corley, R. P. (2001). Dispositional cheerfulness: Early genetic and environmental influences. In R. N. Emde J. K. Hewitt (Eds Infancy to early childhood: Genetic and environmental influences on developmental change (pp. 163 177). London : Oxford University Press.
45. Rothbart, M. K., Ahadi, S. A. Hershey, K. L. (1994). Temperament and social behavior in childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 40, 21 39.
46. Rothbart, M. K., Ahadi, S. A., Hershey, K. L. Fisher, P. (2001). Investigations of temperament at three to seven years: The Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Child Development, 72, 1394 1408. (Pubitemid 33596533)
47. Rothbart, M. K., Derryberry, D. Hershey, K. L. (2000). Stability of temperament in childhood: Laboratory infant assessment to parent at seven years. In V. J. Molfese D. L. Molfese (Eds Temperament and personality development across the life span (pp. 85 120). Mahwah, NJ : Erlbaum.
48. Ruby, P. Decety, J. (2004). How would you feel versus how do you think she would feel? A neuroimaging study of perspective-taking with social emotions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 988 999. (Pubitemid 38998776)
49. Schulte-Ruther, M., Markowitsch, H. J., Fink, G. R. Piefke, M. (2007). Mirror neuron and theory of mind mechanisms involved in face-to-face interactions: A functional magnetic resonance imaging approach to empathy. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 1354 1372. (Pubitemid 47204076)
50. Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., Lester, H., Chisin, R., Israel, O., Bar-Shalom, R., Peretz, A., et al. (2005). The neural correlates of understanding the other's distress: A positron emission tomography investigation of accurate empathy. Neuroimage, 15, 468 572.
51. Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., Tibi-Elhanany, Y. Aharon-Peretz, J. (2007). The green-eyed monster and malicious joy: The neuroanatomical bases of envy and gloating (schadenfreude). Brain, 130, 1663 1678. (Pubitemid 47355930)
52. Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., Tomer, R., Berger, B. D. Aharon-Peretz, J. (2003). Characterization of empathy deficits following prefrontal brain damage: The role of the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 15, 324 337. (Pubitemid 36438944)
53. Singer, T., Seymour, B., O'Doherty, J., Kaube, H., Dolan, R. J. Frith, C. D. (2004). Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain. Science, 303, 1157 1162. (Pubitemid 38233574)
54. Snijders, T. A. B. Bosker, R. J. (1999). Multilevel analysis: An introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling. London : Sage.
55. Staub, E. (1984). Steps toward a comprehensive theory of moral conduct: Goal orientation, social behavior, kindness and cruelty. In J. Gewirtz W. Kurtines (Eds Morality, moral development, and moral behavior: Basic issues in theory and research (pp. 241 260). New York : Wiley.
56. Young, S. K., Fox, N. A. Zahn-Waxler, C. (1999). The relationship between temperament and empathy in 2-year-olds. Developmental Psychology, 35, 1189 1197.
57. Zahn-Waxler, C. (2000). Development of empathy, guilt, and internalization of distress: Implications for gender differences in internalizing and externalizing problems. In R. Davidson (Ed Anxiety, depression, and emotions. Wisconsin Symposium on Emotions (Vol. I, pp. 222 265) New York : Oxford Press.
58. Zahn-Waxler, C., Radke-Yarrow, M., Wagner, E. Chapman, M. (1992). Development of concern for others. Developmental Psychology, 28, 126 136.
59. Zahn-Waxler, C., Robinson, J. L. Emde, R. N. (1992). The development of empathy in twins. Developmental Psychology, 28, 1038 1047.