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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Valdespino, Andrew, Antezana, Ligia, Ghane, Merage, Richey, John A.
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