Empathy and resting-state functional connectivity in children

Abstract

Empathy, which is important for social functioning and mental health, is recognized to have both cognitive and affective components. While several studies have demonstrated unique neural underpinnings of empathy components in adults, few have investigated this in young people. Investigating associations between empathy and brain functional connectivity during childhood is beneficial to begin to build a comprehensive picture of the neural correlates of empathy across the lifespan. One hundred and twelve children (52% female, mean age 10 years) underwent magnetic resonance imaging brain scans including a resting-state sequence and completed empathy self-report measures. Seed-to-whole-brain res..