TY - JOUR
T1 - Empathy deficits and their behavioral, neuroanatomical, and functional connectivity correlates in smoked cocaine users
AU - Baez, Sandra
AU - Fittipaldi, Sol
AU - de la Fuente, Laura Alethia
AU - Carballo, Marcela
AU - Ferrando, Rodolfo
AU - García-Cordero, Indira
AU - Gonzalez Campo, Cecilia
AU - Garcia, Adolfo M.
AU - Sedeño, Lucas
AU - Ibáñez, Agustín
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2021/8/30
Y1 - 2021/8/30
N2 - Reduced empathic abilities are frequently observed in drug abusers. These deficits may compromise interpersonal interactions and contribute to diminished social functioning. However, previous evidence regarding empathy and addiction is behaviorally unspecific and virtually null in terms of their brain structural or functional correlates. Moreover, no previous study has investigated how empathy is affected by drugs whose consumption is particularly characterized by counter-empathic behaviors. Here, we conducted the first assessment of neurocognitive correlates of empathy for pain in dependent users (predominantly men) of smoked cocaine (SC, coca paste, n = 37). We compared their performance in the empathy task with that of two groups matched in relevant demographic variables: 24 dependent users of insufflated cocaine hydrochloride (CC) and 21 healthy controls. In addition, we explored the structural anatomy and functional connectivity (FC) correlates of empathic impairments across groups. Our results showed that, compared to CC and controls, SC users exhibited a selective reduction of empathic concern for intentional harms. These impairments were associated with lower gray matter volumes in regions subserving social cognition (i.e., right inferior parietal lobule, supramarginal and angular gyri). Furthermore, reduced empathic concern correlated with FC within affective empathy and social cognition networks, which are also linked to cognitive changes reported in addiction (i.e., inferior frontal and orbital gyri, posterior insula, supplementary motor area, cingulate cortex). Our findings suggest that chronic consumption of SC may involve reduced empathic concern and relevant neuroanatomical and FC abnormalities, which, in turn, may result in social interaction dysfunction. These results can inform theoretical and applied developments in neuropsychopharmacology.
AB - Reduced empathic abilities are frequently observed in drug abusers. These deficits may compromise interpersonal interactions and contribute to diminished social functioning. However, previous evidence regarding empathy and addiction is behaviorally unspecific and virtually null in terms of their brain structural or functional correlates. Moreover, no previous study has investigated how empathy is affected by drugs whose consumption is particularly characterized by counter-empathic behaviors. Here, we conducted the first assessment of neurocognitive correlates of empathy for pain in dependent users (predominantly men) of smoked cocaine (SC, coca paste, n = 37). We compared their performance in the empathy task with that of two groups matched in relevant demographic variables: 24 dependent users of insufflated cocaine hydrochloride (CC) and 21 healthy controls. In addition, we explored the structural anatomy and functional connectivity (FC) correlates of empathic impairments across groups. Our results showed that, compared to CC and controls, SC users exhibited a selective reduction of empathic concern for intentional harms. These impairments were associated with lower gray matter volumes in regions subserving social cognition (i.e., right inferior parietal lobule, supramarginal and angular gyri). Furthermore, reduced empathic concern correlated with FC within affective empathy and social cognition networks, which are also linked to cognitive changes reported in addiction (i.e., inferior frontal and orbital gyri, posterior insula, supplementary motor area, cingulate cortex). Our findings suggest that chronic consumption of SC may involve reduced empathic concern and relevant neuroanatomical and FC abnormalities, which, in turn, may result in social interaction dysfunction. These results can inform theoretical and applied developments in neuropsychopharmacology.
KW - Brain correlates
KW - Coca paste
KW - Cocaine hydrochloride
KW - Empathy
KW - Social cognition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104395921&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2021.110328
DO - 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2021.110328
M3 - Artículo
C2 - 33865925
AN - SCOPUS:85104395921
SN - 0278-5846
VL - 110
JO - Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
JF - Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
M1 - 110328
ER -