Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) item analysis of empathy and theory of mind

Abstract

In contrast to conventional functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis across participants, item analysis allows generalizing the observed neural response patterns from a specific stimulus set to the entire population of stimuli. In the present study, we perform an item analysis on an fMRI paradigm (EmpaToM) that measures the neural correlates of empathy and Theory of Mind (ToM). The task includes a large stimulus set (240 emotional vs. neutral videos to probe empathic responding and 240 ToM or factual reasoning questions to probe ToM), which we tested in two large participant samples (N = 178, N = 130). Both, the empathy‐related network comprising anterior insula, anterior cingulate/dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and dorsal temporoparietal junction/supramarginal gyrus (TPJ) and the ToM related network including ventral TPJ, superior temporal gyrus, temporal poles, and anterior and posterior midline regions, were observed across participants and items. Regression analyses confirmed that these activations are predicted by the empathy or ToM condition of the stimuli, but not by low‐level features such as video length, number of words, syllables or syntactic complexity. The item analysis also allowed for the selection of the most effective items to create optimized stimulus sets that provide the most stable and reproducible results. Finally, reproducibility was shown in the replication of all analyses in the second participant sample. The data demonstrate (a) the generalizability of empathy and ToM related neural activity and (b) the reproducibility of the EmpaToM task and its applicability in intervention and clinical imaging studies.

Functional selectivity for social interaction perception in the human superior temporal sulcus during natural viewing

“…We selected this criterion to be as objective as possible, and to avoid raters guessing about whether the subjects were engaged in mentalization. This type of second-order theory of mind task activates theory of mind network (Tholen et al, 2020). As in prior studies (Saxe and Powell, 2006), the description of a character's appearance (e.g., she is tall and thin) or bodily sensation (e.g., she had been sick for three days) were not considered theory of mind.…”

Brain activation during social cognition predicts everyday perspective-taking: A combined fMRI and ecological momentary assessment study of the social brain

“…This paradigm is designed to assess neural activation and behavioral performance related to social affect and cognition using a within-subjects design ( Kanske, Böckler, et al, 2015 ). An item-analysis demonstrates good reliability of the task and both the neural as well as the behavioral measures of the EmpaToM have been validated with established tasks ( Kanske, Böckler, et al, 2015 ; Tholen et al, 2020 ). We used one of the parallel versions consisting of optimized item sets identified by Tholen and colleagues (2020) .…”

“…An item-analysis demonstrates good reliability of the task and both the neural as well as the behavioral measures of the EmpaToM have been validated with established tasks ( Kanske, Böckler, et al, 2015 ; Tholen et al, 2020 ). We used one of the parallel versions consisting of optimized item sets identified by Tholen and colleagues (2020) . Participants were instructed to empathize with individuals giving autobiographic narratives in short videos.…”

Functional and microstructural plasticity following social and interoceptive mental training

“…Behavioral changes of these markers elicited by the different modules are reported elsewhere (Trautwein et al, 2020). The measure for compassion was based on the EmpaToM task, a developed and validated naturalistic video paradigm in the current subjects (Kanske et al, 2015; Tholen et al, 2020). Videos showed people recounting autobiographical episodes that were either emotionally negative (e.g., loss of a loved one) or neutral (e.g., commuting to work), followed by Likert-scale ratings of experienced valence and compassion.…”