Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience of Atypical Empathy in Conduct Disorder

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究将比较评估关于行为障碍（CD）非典型共情的生物心理学机制的三种假说。意义：整个生命周期的反社会行为造成了巨大的公共健康负担。尽管社会因素的重要性毋庸置疑，但关于儿童乳糜泄中涉及的神经生物学因素仍有许多有待研究。对他人的共情关怀已被假设在抑制攻击和其他形式的反社会行为中发挥关键作用，而共情缺失会导致社会互动中的严重障碍。因此，研究非典型共情关怀在儿童乳糜泻中的作用具有重要意义。创新：本研究将是首次使用功能磁共振成像技术对青春期前乳糜泻儿童非典型共情进行神经生物学研究。它将为一个急需的涉及CD中功能失调共情的基本脑-行为过程的综合生物心理学模型提供经验基础。在处理CD等复杂现象时，多层次的科学分析是至关重要的。通常，健康人群和精神病人群的共情评估仅依赖于提供一种信息的自我报告测量。方法：为了实现我们的科学目标，我们将从符合CD诊断标准的9-11岁男女儿童（N = 60）和一组非CD对照儿童（N = 60）中获得一些神经生物学和行为测量，以了解他们在看到他人痛苦时的反应。这些测量包括：(a)大脑结构解剖和功能连接；(b)对视觉刺激的神经血流动力学反应，通常会引起共情关注；(c)对看到他人痛苦时所引起的影响的主观评分；(d)对描绘他人痛苦的刺激的接近倾向的行为测量；以及(e)自主神经系统活动的测量。我们假设，当看到他人疼痛时，患有乳糜泻的儿童会在疼痛基质中表现出更大的神经血流动力学反应，这些区域涉及第一手疼痛体验的感觉辨别和情感方面。行为测量将表明患有乳糜泻的儿童在看到别人痛苦时比对照儿童有更积极的情感反应。此外，患有乳糜泻的儿童在PFC和杏仁核之间表现出较少的解剖连接和功能连接，这与对处于痛苦中的他人的共情关怀的情感方面的自我调节能力下降是一致的。环境和调查员：我们经验丰富的调查员和顾问团队包括CD，功能神经影像学和认知神经科学方面的专家，特别是在移情和心理生理测量领域。芝加哥大学为这个项目提供了强大的环境和资源。公共卫生相关性：由于大多数犯罪是由青少年犯下的，青少年的反社会行为造成了巨大的公共卫生负担。反社会行为不仅在身体和心理上伤害受害者，而且反社会青年在监禁、暴力伤害和死亡、滥用药物和自杀方面的风险很高。本研究将对行为障碍儿童功能失调共情关注的基本脑-行为过程进行综合理解，并提出新的治疗和预防方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed study will comparatively evaluate three hypotheses regarding biopsychological mechanisms underpinning atypical empathy in conduct disorder (CD). Significance: Antisocial behavior across the lifespan creates an enormous public health burden. Despite the indisputable importance of social factors, much remains to be learned about neurobiological factors involved in childhood CD. Empathic concern for others has been hypothesized to play a key role in inhibiting aggression and other forms of antisocial behavior and deficits in empathy lead to profound disturbances in social interaction. Therefore, studies of the role of atypical empathic concern in childhood CD are of great importance. Innovation: The proposed study would be the first neurobiological study of atypical empathy in pre-adolescent children with CD using functional magnetic resonance imaging. It will provide the empirical basis for a much-needed integrative biopsychological model of the basic brain-behavior processes involved in dysfunctional empathy in CD. Multiple levels of scientific analysis are fundamentally important when addressing complex phenomena such as CD. Too often, the assessment of empathy in both healthy and psychiatric populations has relied solely on self-report measures that provide only one kind of information. Approach: To achieve our scientific aims we will obtain from male and female 9-11 year old children who meet diagnostic criteria for CD (N = 60) and a group of non-CD control children (N = 60) a number of neurobiological and behavioral measures of responses to viewing others in pain. These measures include: (a) structural brain anatomy and functional connectivity (b) neuro-hemodynamic responses to visual stimuli that typically evoke empathic concern, (c) subjective ratings of the affect elicited by viewing others in pain, (d) behavioral measures of approach tendencies to stimuli depicting pain in others, and (e) measures of autonomic nervous system activity. We hypothesize that when viewing others in pain, children with CD will exhibit greater neuro-hemodynamic response in areas of the pain matrix involved in both the sensory-discriminative and affective aspects of the first-hand experience of pain. The behavioral measures will indicate that children with CD experience a more positive affective response to seeing others in pain than comparison children. Furthermore, children with CD will exhibit both less anatomical connection and functional connectivity between the PFC and the amygdala, which would be consistent with diminished self-regulation of emotional aspects of empathic concern for others in distress. Environment and Investigators: Our experienced team of investigators and consultants includes experts on CD, functional neuroimaging and cognitive neuroscience, especially in the area of empathy, and psychophysiological measurement. The University of Chicago provides a strong environment and resources for this project. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Because most crime is committed by juveniles, antisocial behavior in youth creates an enormous public health burden. Antisocial behavior not only harms victims in physical and psychological ways, but antisocial youth are at high risk for incarceration, injury and death from violence, substance abuse, and suicide. The proposed translational study will lead to an integrative understanding of basic brain-behavior processes involved in dysfunctional empathic concern in children with conduct disorder and suggest new approaches to treatment and prevention.