
Frontiers in Psychiatry, Год журнала: 2025, Номер 16
Опубликована: Апрель 10, 2025
The neural bases of individual differences in empathy subcomponents are still debated. We employed brain morphometry to investigate the neurostructural and sex specific facets 124 healthy individuals who completed Balanced-Emotional-Empathy-Scale (BEES), both emotional/cognitive self/other-oriented subscales Interpersonal-Reactivity-Index (IRI). Univariate multivariate morphometric analyses highlighted, respectively, voxels/clusters whole structural networks where grey-matter volume reflected subscores. Such properties were significantly related emotional empathy, while no evidence was found for underlying cognitive empathy. Personal distress correlated with right insula amygdala, likely mediating an affective sharing self-perceived as disturbing. Instead, empathic concern associated medial precuneus sensorimotor/inferior parietal cortex, possibly enabling comprehension prosocial behaviour mediated by attentional shift towards others. Female participants displayed larger than male ones, higher limbic structures including amygdala insula. These results ground multicomponential models networks, representing a reference future studies processing health disease.
Язык: Английский