Top-down Effects on Empathy for Pain in Adults with Autistic Traits

Abstract

While empathic responses of individuals with autism-spectrum disorder have been reported to be modulated by top-down attention, it remains unclear whether empathy for pain in typically developing individuals with autistic traits also involves such top-down modulation mechanisms. This study employed the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) to quantify autistic traits in a group of 1,231 healthy adults. Two subset groups (High-AQ and Low-AQ groups) were randomly selected from the highest and lowest 10% AQ scores respectively. We explored whether participants in both groups would differ in their response to others’ pain when their attention was directed toward (A-P tasks) or away (A-N tasks) from pain cues in auditory and visual experimental modalities. Compared to Low-AQ individuals, High-AQ individuals exhibited more suppressed N1 and P2 amplitudes in response to painful vocal cues in auditory A-N tasks. This suggests suppressed attentional and emotional processes of empathy for pain when High-AQ individuals have their attention directed away from others’ pain cues. No significant difference was found between both groups in the auditory A-P task, nor in the visual A-P and A-N tasks. These results suggest that top-down attention modulation of cortical empathic responses to others’ vocal pain is influenced by autistic traits.

Altered neuronal habituation to hearing others’ pain in adults with autistic traits

“…In addition, the effects of the modulation of top-down attention on the empathic abilities of individuals with autistic traits have also been studied. In line with previous studies 7,8 , our previously published study explored top-down attention for others' pain, which was manipulated by instructing participants to either focus on pain cues in the stimuli, or to focus on non-pain cues 16,17 . The results showed that if individuals with autistic traits were not explicitly instructed to focus on others' feelings, their empathic responses show impairments 16,17 .…”

“…In line with previous studies 7,8 , our previously published study explored top-down attention for others' pain, which was manipulated by instructing participants to either focus on pain cues in the stimuli, or to focus on non-pain cues 16,17 . The results showed that if individuals with autistic traits were not explicitly instructed to focus on others' feelings, their empathic responses show impairments 16,17 . Furthermore, previous studies indicated that during passive viewing, ASD individuals did not show empathic responses until they were explicitly instructed to do so; this suggests that in these individuals, the spontaneous empathic response may be impaired 29,30 .…”

“…This represents the impaired empathic habituation of individuals with autistic traits to others' pain, when they have not been specifically instructed to focus their attention to others (regardless of the presence of pain or non-pain cues). Second, previous studies indicated that the empathic responses of individuals with autistic traits showed impairments in implicit tasks 16,17 . Based on this, the present study hypothesized that altered empathic neuronal habituation in the High-AQ group will be present in both the Passive Listening Task and the Gender Judgment Task.…”

“…An association between individuals with ASD or autistic traits and their selective impairment with regard to judging others' pain in the visual 27 and auditory 17,28 modalities has been documented. In addition, the effects of the modulation of top-down attention on the empathic abilities of individuals with autistic traits have also been studied.…”

The interaction between pain and attractiveness perception in others

“…emotions in the faces, such that negative emotions suppressed attractiveness assessments as compared to positive and neutral emotional faces 19,20 . According to the "threat value of pain" hypothesis, others' pain, serving as warning signals to avoid or escape [5][6][7][8] , would elicit negative emotional reactions [21][22][23][24] , thus suppressing the perception of physical attractiveness, as evidenced by decreased attractiveness ratings and neural responses.…”