Empathic Processing in Patients with Mild-to-Moderate Stroke
Abstract
Recent lesion studies have indicated that regions of the human prefrontal cortex play a critical role in empathy; however, these lesion studies often include patients with severe head injuries. The present study utilizes a cohort of 84 patients with cerebrovascular disease with mild-to-moderate strokes to examine the neural regions involved in empathy. We hypothesized that dissociable areas of the prefrontal cortex are involved in empathy. We predicted that lesions to the inferior prefrontal cortex would result in deficits in empathy compared to superior prefrontal lesions, non-prefrontal lesions, and those with no detectable lesions. To measure empathy, caregiver ratings were obtained on the empirically validated Interpersonal Reactivity Index. No significant differences were found among groups. A voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping analysis was conducted on segmented lesion images to create a statistical map of the neural regions involved in empathy; no significant results were found. Our findings indicate that mild-to-moderate stroke lesions may not be severe enough to produce observable deficits in empathy.