Testosterone administration does not alter the brain activity supporting cognitive and affective empathy

Although there is evidence that testosterone has deteriorating effects on cognitive and affective empathy, whether testosterone administration influences both routes to understanding others has not yet been simultaneously investigated. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) pharmacological study using a within-subjects, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover design to examine the effects of 100 mg transdermal testosterone administration on brain activation during a task that examines affective and cognitive empathy simultaneously in a sample of 23 healthy right-handed adult men. Relative to placebo, testosterone did not alter affective or cognitive empathy functional brain networks. Instead, the task yielded activation in the canonical networks associated with both types of empathy. Affective empathy yielded activation in the inferior and middle frontal gyri, inferior temporal gyri, and the cingulate cortex. Cognitive empathy was associated with activation of the temporoparietal junction, medial prefrontal cortex, middle and inferior temporal gyri, and temporal pole. Behaviourally, testosterone administration decreased error rates and increased participants’ confidence in their responses regardless of response accuracy. Independent of testosterone administration, participants reported higher affective responses during emotionally negative scenarios. Even though our results provide further evidence that testosterone administration in healthy men does not alter brain activity underlying cognitive and affective empathy, testosterone administration does influence the empathic concern and hence socio-cognitive processes. The reproducibility and variability of the current and previous findings should nevertheless be addressed in upcoming studies.