Impairment of affective and cognitive empathy in high functioning autism is mediated by alterations in emotional reactivity.

ABSTRACT: Empathy impairments are considered a key aspect of autism-spectrum disorders (ASD). Previous research consistently shows reduced cognitive empathy, but findings on affective empathy vary, possibly due to experimental design variations (e.g., stimulus modality, social distance) and individual psychological factors (e.g., perceptual abilities, emotional reactivity). This study aims to clarify deficits in affective and cognitive empathy in ASD by addressing these contributing factors. Empathy was examined in 34 autistic individuals and 33 typically developed controls (TDCs) through the Textual Empathy Test (TET). The TET was developed to assess emotional responses when imagining oneself (emotional reactivity) as compared to a target person (friend, stranger) in emotional situations presented

SUBMITTER: Kimmig AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11408716 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature