Age-related differences in negative cognitive empathy but similarities in positive affective empathy.

ABSTRACT: Empathy, among other social-cognitive processes, changes across adulthood. More specifically, cognitive components of empathy (understanding another's perspective) appear to decline with age, while findings for affective empathy (sharing another's emotional state) are rather mixed. Structural and functional correlates underlying cognitive and affective empathy in aging and the extent to which valence affects empathic response in brain and behavior are not well understood yet. To fill these research gaps, younger and older adults completed a modified version of the Multifaceted Empathy Test, which measures both cognitive and affective empathy as well as empathic responding to both positive and negative stimuli (i.e., positive vs. negative empathy). Adopting a multimodal imaging approach and

SUBMITTER: Ziaei M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8203543 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature