Panpan Hu1, Ruihua Cao2, Juan Fang3, Qian Yang4, Tingting Liu2, Fengqiong Yu5, Kai Wang2. 1. Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Centre of Neuropsychiatric Disorder and Mental Health, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China. Electronic address: hpppanda9@126.com. 2. Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Centre of Neuropsychiatric Disorder and Mental Health, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China. 3. Department of Emergency, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China. 4. Department of Neurology, Nanjing Jiangning Hospital, Nanjing, China. 5. Collaborative Innovation Centre of Neuropsychiatric Disorder and Mental Health, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Laboratory of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Department of Medical Psychology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: How Parkinson's disease (PD) affects an individual's empathic capacity remains poorly understood. By using the event-related potential (ERP) technique, we sought to: (1) study the temporal dynamics of empathic responses in patients with PD; (2) explore whether dopaminergic medication modulates empathic processing. METHODS: Twenty-six patients with early-to-moderate PD (13 on- and 13 off-medication) and 14 healthy controls performed an empathy-for-pain paradigm test while we recorded their electroencephalography. The participants responded to neutral or painful pictures during an active empathic condition (pain judgment task) and a control condition that was manipulated by task demands (laterality judgment task). RESULTS: The ERP results demonstrated an early automatic frontal response and a late controlled parietal response to pain in healthy elderly controls. The observed early and late ERP responses were detected in the on-medication patients but not in the off-medication patients. CONCLUSIONS: PD is associated with deficits in both affective and cognitive empathic responses, dopaminergic medication may have the potential to alleviate these deficits. SIGNIFICANCE: This study helps to understand empathic deficits in patients with PD. Within-subject studies are required to reliably assess the effect of dopaminergic medication on empathic processing.
OBJECTIVE: How Parkinson's disease (PD) affects an individual's empathic capacity remains poorly understood. By using the event-related potential (ERP) technique, we sought to: (1) study the temporal dynamics of empathic responses in patients with PD; (2) explore whether dopaminergic medication modulates empathic processing. METHODS: Twenty-six patients with early-to-moderate PD (13 on- and 13 off-medication) and 14 healthy controls performed an empathy-for-pain paradigm test while we recorded their electroencephalography. The participants responded to neutral or painful pictures during an active empathic condition (pain judgment task) and a control condition that was manipulated by task demands (laterality judgment task). RESULTS: The ERP results demonstrated an early automatic frontal response and a late controlled parietal response to pain in healthy elderly controls. The observed early and late ERP responses were detected in the on-medication patients but not in the off-medication patients. CONCLUSIONS:PD is associated with deficits in both affective and cognitive empathic responses, dopaminergic medication may have the potential to alleviate these deficits. SIGNIFICANCE: This study helps to understand empathic deficits in patients with PD. Within-subject studies are required to reliably assess the effect of dopaminergic medication on empathic processing.