Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience of Atypical Empathy in Conduct Disorder

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究将比较评估三个假设的生物心理机制的基础上非典型移情行为障碍（CD）。意义：一生中的反社会行为造成了巨大的公共卫生负担。尽管社会因素的重要性是无可争议的，但有关儿童CD的神经生物学因素仍有许多有待了解的地方。对他人的共情关注被认为在抑制攻击和其他形式的反社会行为中起着关键作用，共情的缺陷会导致社会交往的严重干扰。因此，研究非典型共情关注在儿童CD中的作用具有重要意义。创新：这项研究将是第一个使用功能性磁共振成像对青少年前CD儿童非典型同理心进行的神经生物学研究。它将提供一个急需的整合生物心理学模型的基本脑行为过程中涉及的功能失调的共情在CD的经验基础。在处理CD等复杂现象时，多层次的科学分析至关重要。在很多情况下，对健康人群和精神病患者的共情评估都只依赖于自我报告的测量方法，而这些方法只提供了一种信息。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岁男性和女性儿童（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学指标，以衡量他们对看到他人疼痛的反应。这些措施包括：（a）大脑结构解剖学和功能连接（B）对视觉刺激的神经血液动力学反应，这些视觉刺激通常引起移情关注，（c）通过观察他人疼痛引起的情感的主观评级，（d）对描述他人疼痛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，当看到别人的痛苦，CD儿童将表现出更大的神经血流动力学反应的疼痛矩阵领域参与的感官歧视和情感方面的第一手经验的疼痛。行为测量将表明，与对照儿童相比，CD儿童在看到他人痛苦时会经历更积极的情感反应。此外，患有CD的儿童将表现出PFC和杏仁核之间的解剖连接和功能连接较少，这与对他人痛苦的移情关注的情绪方面的自我调节减少是一致的。环境和研究者：我们经验丰富的研究人员和顾问团队包括CD，功能性神经成像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。芝加哥大学为该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方面伤害受害者，而且反社会青年因暴力、药物滥用和自杀而被监禁、受伤和死亡的风险很高。拟议的翻译研究将导致对行为障碍儿童功能失调的移情关注所涉及的基本大脑行为过程的综合理解，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.