Mentalizing about emotion and its relationship to empathy
Mentalizing about emotion and its relationship to empathy
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DOI：
10.1093/scan/nsn019
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发表时间：
2008-09-01
影响因子：
4.2
通讯作者：
D'Esposito, Mark
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hooker, Christine I.;Verosky, Sara C.;D'Esposito, Mark
心智化涉及到根据他人的信念状态来预测他人行为的能力。更高级的心智化技能包括将有关信念的知识与有关这些信念的情感影响的知识相结合。最近的研究表明，高级思维技能可能与同情他人的能力有关。然而，目前尚不清楚心理化的哪个方面与移情最相关。在这项研究中，我们使用了一种新颖的、先进的心智化任务来识别基于信念状态预测未来情绪反应的神经机制。被试观看的社会场景中，一个角色有错误的信念，另一个角色有正确的信念。在初级条件下，被试被要求预测如果错误信念角色完全了解情况，他们会有什么样的情绪。我们发现，在预测未来情绪反应时，涉及到与心智化和情绪相关的神经区域，包括颞上沟、内侧前额叶皮层、颞极、体感相关皮层（SRC）、额下回和丘脑。此外，在预测情绪反应时，包括右SRC和双侧丘脑在内的主要情绪相关区域的神经活动增加与更多的自我报告共情显著相关。研究结果表明，预测情绪反应涉及产生和使用内部情感表征，而在试图理解他人的情感体验时，更多地使用这些情感表征与更多的同理心有关。
Mentalizing involves the ability to predict someone elses behavior based on their belief state. More advanced mentalizing skills involve integrating knowledge about beliefs with knowledge about the emotional impact of those beliefs. Recent research indicates that advanced mentalizing skills may be related to the capacity to empathize with others. However, it is not clear what aspect of mentalizing is most related to empathy. In this study, we used a novel, advanced mentalizing task to identify neural mechanisms involved in predicting a future emotional response based on a belief state. Subjects viewed social scenes in which one character had a False Belief and one character had a True Belief. In the primary condition, subjects were asked to predict what emotion the False Belief Character would feel if they had a full understanding about the situation. We found that neural regions related to both mentalizing and emotion were involved when predicting a future emotional response, including the superior temporal sulcus, medial prefrontal cortex, temporal poles, somatosensory related cortices (SRC), inferior frontal gyrus and thalamus. In addition, greater neural activity in primarily emotion-related regions, including right SRC and bilateral thalamus, when predicting emotional response was significantly correlated with more self-reported empathy. The findings suggest that predicting emotional response involves generating and using internal affective representations and that greater use of these affective representations when trying to understand the emotional experience of others is related to more empathy.