自我情緒狀態對同理心反應影響之神經機轉

Abstract

同理心（empathy）——個體在能夠清楚區辨自我與他人的狀態下共享他人情緒之能力，在合作、養育子女、及利他行為等人類社會情緒互動過程中都扮演重要的角色。過往神經造影研究發現，同理他人疼痛經驗會活化前側腦島皮質（anterior insular cortex, aIC）與前側扣帶迴皮質（anterior cingulate cortex, ACC）這兩個負責個體自身疼痛經驗的關鍵腦區。這樣的研究結果揭示了處理個體自身情緒經驗的神經機制，可能會影響個體與他人產生情緒共鳴的傾向；然而，迄今仍少有研究直接去檢驗自身的情緒狀態會如何調節個體的同理心反應。本功能性磁振造影研究藉由操弄電痛刺激的強度，讓健康成年受試者不僅自身歷經負向（電刺激強度增加）、中性（電刺激強度不變）與正向情緒（電刺激強度減弱），也讓他們觀看一位同性別的實驗同謀（confederate）歷經上述情緒。初步行為結果發現，同理心反應只會受到相同情緒效價（affective valence）的自身情緒狀態調節：自身負向情緒狀態會削弱負向同理心，而自身正向情緒狀態則會促進正向同理心。此研究預期能夠提昇我們對於人際互動中情緒處理之神經機轉的了解。

Empathy, the capacity to share the feelings of others with self-other distinction, plays a critical role in human emotional experiences and social interaction, such as cooperation, parenting, and altruistic behaviour. Previous studies have revealed that empathy for others’ physical pain activates the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex, two key brain regions involved in first-hand painful experiences. This observation raises the possibility that the neural processing related to our first-hand emotion may influence our propensity to resonate with the same emotion perceived in others. However, few studies so far have been conducted to examine how self emotional states would affect emotional empathy. By manipulating the magnitude of electrical stimulation in the current functional magnetic resonance imaging study, healthy adults themselves not only experienced negative (i.e., pain exacerbation), neutral (i.e., no change in pain intensity) and positive (i.e., pain relief) outcomes, but also observed a same-sex individual experiencing these outcomes. Preliminary behavioural results revealed that a negative affective state in self diminished negative empathy while having little influence on positive empathy. In contrast, a self positive affective state increased positive empathy, with no significant effect on negative empathy. Results obtained from this study will advance our knowledge about cerebral mechanisms underpinning emotional processing in interpersonal contexts.