Cargando…
Alexithymia as a Transdiagnostic Precursor to Empathy Abnormalities: The Functional Role of the Insula
Distorted empathic processing has been observed across multiple psychiatric disorders. Simulation theory provides a theoretical framework that proposes a mechanism through which empathy difficulties may arise. Specifically, introspection-centric simulation theory (IST) predicts that an inability to...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2017
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5742870/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29312079 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02234 |
_version_ | 1783288468539965440 |
---|---|
author | Valdespino, Andrew Antezana, Ligia Ghane, Merage Richey, John A. |
author_facet | Valdespino, Andrew Antezana, Ligia Ghane, Merage Richey, John A. |
author_sort | Valdespino, Andrew |
collection | PubMed |
description | Distorted empathic processing has been observed across multiple psychiatric disorders. Simulation theory provides a theoretical framework that proposes a mechanism through which empathy difficulties may arise. Specifically, introspection-centric simulation theory (IST) predicts that an inability to accurately interpret and describe internal affective states may lead to empathy difficulties. The purpose of this review is to synthesize and summarize an empirical literature suggesting that simulation theory provides insights into a cognitive and neurobiological mechanism (i.e., alexithymia and insula pathology) that negatively impacts empathic processing, in addition to how disruptions in these processes manifest across psychiatric disorders. Specifically, we review an emerging non-clinical literature suggesting that consistent with IST, alexithymia and associated insula pathology leads to empathy deficits. Subsequently, we highlight clinical research suggesting that a large number of disorders characterized by empathy pathology also feature alexithymia. Collectively, these findings motivate the importance for future work to establish the role of alexithymia in contributing to empathy deficits across clinical symptoms and disorders. The current review suggests that simulation theory provides a tractable conceptual platform for identifying a potential common cognitive and neural marker that is associated with empathy deficits across a wide array of diagnostic classes. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5742870 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-57428702018-01-08 Alexithymia as a Transdiagnostic Precursor to Empathy Abnormalities: The Functional Role of the Insula Valdespino, Andrew Antezana, Ligia Ghane, Merage Richey, John A. Front Psychol Psychology Distorted empathic processing has been observed across multiple psychiatric disorders. Simulation theory provides a theoretical framework that proposes a mechanism through which empathy difficulties may arise. Specifically, introspection-centric simulation theory (IST) predicts that an inability to accurately interpret and describe internal affective states may lead to empathy difficulties. The purpose of this review is to synthesize and summarize an empirical literature suggesting that simulation theory provides insights into a cognitive and neurobiological mechanism (i.e., alexithymia and insula pathology) that negatively impacts empathic processing, in addition to how disruptions in these processes manifest across psychiatric disorders. Specifically, we review an emerging non-clinical literature suggesting that consistent with IST, alexithymia and associated insula pathology leads to empathy deficits. Subsequently, we highlight clinical research suggesting that a large number of disorders characterized by empathy pathology also feature alexithymia. Collectively, these findings motivate the importance for future work to establish the role of alexithymia in contributing to empathy deficits across clinical symptoms and disorders. The current review suggests that simulation theory provides a tractable conceptual platform for identifying a potential common cognitive and neural marker that is associated with empathy deficits across a wide array of diagnostic classes. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-12-21 /pmc/articles/PMC5742870/ /pubmed/29312079 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02234 Text en Copyright © 2017 Valdespino, Antezana, Ghane and Richey. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Valdespino, Andrew Antezana, Ligia Ghane, Merage Richey, John A. Alexithymia as a Transdiagnostic Precursor to Empathy Abnormalities: The Functional Role of the Insula |
title | Alexithymia as a Transdiagnostic Precursor to Empathy Abnormalities: The Functional Role of the Insula |
title_full | Alexithymia as a Transdiagnostic Precursor to Empathy Abnormalities: The Functional Role of the Insula |
title_fullStr | Alexithymia as a Transdiagnostic Precursor to Empathy Abnormalities: The Functional Role of the Insula |
title_full_unstemmed | Alexithymia as a Transdiagnostic Precursor to Empathy Abnormalities: The Functional Role of the Insula |
title_short | Alexithymia as a Transdiagnostic Precursor to Empathy Abnormalities: The Functional Role of the Insula |
title_sort | alexithymia as a transdiagnostic precursor to empathy abnormalities: the functional role of the insula |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5742870/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29312079 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02234 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT valdespinoandrew alexithymiaasatransdiagnosticprecursortoempathyabnormalitiesthefunctionalroleoftheinsula AT antezanaligia alexithymiaasatransdiagnosticprecursortoempathyabnormalitiesthefunctionalroleoftheinsula AT ghanemerage alexithymiaasatransdiagnosticprecursortoempathyabnormalitiesthefunctionalroleoftheinsula AT richeyjohna alexithymiaasatransdiagnosticprecursortoempathyabnormalitiesthefunctionalroleoftheinsula |