The narcissistic self and its psychological and neural correlates: an exploratory fMRI study
The narcissistic self and its psychological and neural correlates: an exploratory fMRI study
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DOI：
10.1017/s003329171000228x
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发表时间：
2011-08-01
影响因子：
6.9
通讯作者：
Northoff, G.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fan, Y.;Wonneberger, C.;Northoff, G.
背景自恋的概念在精神分析学，特别是自我心理学中已经得到了大量的研究。自恋的标志之一是情绪的改变，包括情感共鸣的减少（e。G.同理心），其神经基础尚不清楚。本研究的目的是探讨高、低自恋人格特质的健康被试的共情心理和神经相关性。我们假设，高度自恋的受试者会在一些区域表现出不同的活动模式，比如前额叶，这些区域通常与共情有关。根据自恋量表（NI）评分的第66百分位数和第33百分位数，将34名非临床受试者分为高自恋组（n=11）和低自恋组（n=11）。结合心理、行为和神经元[即功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）]测量共情，我们比较了高自恋和低自恋组的受试者。高自恋者在症状自评量表（SCL-90-R）和多伦多述情障碍量表（TAS-20）上的得分高于低自恋者。高自恋者在共情过程中也表现出明显减少的失活，尤其是在右前岛叶。心理学和神经影像学数据分别表明，高自恋被试的述情障碍程度较高，共情过程中的失活程度较低。综上所述，我们的初步研究结果首次证明了非临床受试者中自恋的心理和神经相关性。这可能规定了新的心理动力学概念和未来的自恋心理神经元研究。
Background. The concept of narcissism has been much researched in psychoanalysis and especially in self psychology. One of the hallmarks of narcissism is altered emotion, including decreased affective resonance (e. g. empathy) with others, the neural underpinnings of which remain unclear. The aim of our exploratory study was to investigate the psychological and neural correlates of empathy in two groups of healthy subjects with high and low narcissistic personality trait. We hypothesized that high narcissistic subjects would show a differential activity pattern in regions such as the anterior insula that are typically associated with empathy.Method. A sample of 34 non-clinical subjects was divided into high (n=11) and low (n=11) narcissistic groups according to the 66th and 33rd percentiles of their scores on the Narcissism Inventory (NI). Combining the psychological, behavioral and neuronal [i.e. functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)] measurements of empathy, we compared the high and low narcissistic groups of subjects.Results. High narcissistic subjects showed higher scores on the Symptom Checklist-90 - Revised (SCL-90-R) and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) when compared to low narcissistic subjects. High narcissistic subjects also showed significantly decreased deactivation during empathy, especially in the right anterior insula.Conclusions. Psychological and neuroimaging data indicate respectively higher degrees of alexithymia and lower deactivation during empathy in the insula in high narcissistic subjects. Taken together, our preliminary findings demonstrate, for the first time, psychological and neuronal correlates of narcissism in non-clinical subjects. This might stipulate both novel psychodynamic conceptualization and future psychological-neuronal investigation of narcissism.