Functional connectivity patterns of trait empathy are associated with age.

Empathy is the capacity to feel and understand others' mental states. In some individuals, there is an imbalance between the affective and cognitive components of empathy, which can lead to deficits. This study investigated the functional connectivity of the anterior insula (AI) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), which play key roles in empathy, in covariation with the affective and cognitive subscales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), as a function of age and sex, as an exploratory analysis.

Difference in neural response to social exclusion observation and subsequent altruism between adolescents and adults.

Empathy and prosocial behaviors toward peers promote successful social development and creation of significant long-term relationships, but surprisingly little is known about the maturation of these skills during the period of adolescence. As the majority of studies have used questionnaires or pain observation paradigms, it remains unknown whether the empathic response of adolescents differs from that of adults in a paradigm that is closer to everyday life. In the current study, fMRI was used to examine the neural correlates of social exclusion observation and subsequent prosocial behavior in 20 adolescents (aged 12-17 years) and 20 adults (aged 22-30 years) while playing a ball-tossing game with what they believed to be real individuals.

A developmental perspective on the neural bases of human empathy.

While empathy has been widely studied in philosophical and psychological literatures, recent advances in social neuroscience have shed light on the neural correlates of this complex interpersonal phenomenon. In this review, we provide an overview of brain imaging studies that have investigated the neural substrates of human empathy. Based on existing models of the functional architecture of empathy, we review evidence of the neural underpinnings of each main component, as well as their development from infancy.

Impact of traumatic brain injury on social cognition in adolescents and contribution of other higher order cognitive functions.

Social cognition impairments can contribute to social participation difficulties following traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, little attention has been given to these impairments during adolescence, a period of life when peer relationships are central. The aim of the current study was to examine the impact of a moderate to severe TBI sustained in adolescence on multiple facets of social cognition.

Assessing motor imagery ability in younger and older adults by combining measures of vividness, controllability and timing of motor imagery.

With the population aging, a large number of patients undergoing rehabilitation are older than 60 years. Also, since the use of motor imagery (MI) training in rehabilitation is becoming more popular, it is important to gain a better knowledge about the age-related changes in MI ability. The main goal of this study was to compare MI ability in younger and older adults as well as to propose a new procedure for testing this ability.

Motor imagery and aging.

Motor imagery (MI) is the mental simulation of an action without its actual execution. It has been successfully used through mental practice--the repetition of imagined movements--to optimize motor function either in sport or rehabilitation settings. Healthy elderly individuals facing age-related impairments in motor function could also benefit from this method of training-retraining.