Interoceptive awareness enhances neural activity during empathy

• Published in: Human brain mapping Vol. 34; no. 7; pp. 1615 - 1624
• Main Authors: Ernst, Jutta, Northoff, Georg, Böker, Heinz, Seifritz, Erich, Grimm, Simone
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01.07.2013; Wiley-Liss; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Awareness - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Mapping; Cerebral Cortex - blood supply; Cerebral Cortex - physiology; empathy; Empathy - physiology; Female; fMRI; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; interoceptive awareness; Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects); Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Nervous system; Neural Pathways - blood supply; Neural Pathways - physiology; Oxygen; Perception; Photic Stimulation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Radiodiagnosis. Nmr imagery. Nmr spectrometry; Time Factors; Vision; Young Adult; fMRI; Nervous system diseases; Radiodiagnosis; Awareness; interoceptive awareness; Empathy; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging
• ISSN: 1065-9471; 1097-0193; 1097-0193
• DOI: 10.1002/hbm.22014

Empathy is a multicomponent function that includes sensorimotor, affective, and cognitive components. Although especially the affective component may implicate interoception and interoceptive awareness, the impact of interoception on empathy has never been evaluated behaviorally or neurophysiologically. Here, we tested how a preceding period of interoceptive awareness impacts and modulates neural activity during subsequent empathy. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and measured the sequential interaction between interoception and empathy using fMRI in 18 healthy subjects. We found that the preceding interoceptive awareness period significantly enhanced neural activity during empathy in bilateral anterior insula and various cortical midline regions. The enhancement of neural activity during empathy in both interoceptive and empathy networks by preceding interoceptive awareness suggests a close relationship between interoception and empathy; thereby, interoception seems to be implicated to yielding empathy. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.