Modulation of Functional Connectivity Associated with Empathy via Theta Burst Stimulation
Poster No:
31
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Raha Holakouei1, Mohammad-Reza Nazem-Zadeh2, Alireza Fallahi3, Seyed Parsa Saleh3, Reza Kazemi1, Reza Rostami1
Institutions:
1University of Tehran, Tehran, Tehran, 2Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3Hamedan University of Technology, Hamedan, Hamedan
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Empathy, defined as the capacity to understand feelings and share them with others, plays a pivotal role in mitigating harm and promoting altruistic behavior. Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) is a neuromodulation technique that can influence brain activity. However, there is a paucity of research examining its effects on resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in concordance with empathy. This study aims to investigate the impact of iTBS applied to the right temporoparietal junction on the functional connectivity associated with empathetic processes in healthy women.
Methods:
Thirty female participants were recruited for this study. After screening participants' scores on the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) questionnaire and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 individuals were selected for the study (mean age = 27.4 years, SD = 5.9).
The stimulation area was guided by T1-weighted MRI scans acquired using a Siemens 3 Tesla scanner equipped with a 20-channel phased array coil. The placement of the stimulation coil over the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) was facilitated by a frameless stereotaxic neuronavigation system (LOCALITE Biomedical Visualization Systems GmbH, Sankt Augustin, Germany). To ensure precise targeting during the stimulation session, real-time monitoring was employed (Quesque & Brass, 2019).
The iTBS protocol was administered using a MagPro X100 device with a Cool-B65 coil, which features an integrated cooling system. The iTBS stimulation followed a theta-burst pattern of three quick pulses with 20-millisecond intervals over three minutes, delivered at 100% of each participant's resting motor threshold. The total session duration was 3 minutes and 9 seconds, with an average stimulation intensity of 42.87% of the maximum output.
Functional MRI (fMRI) data were collected using gradient-echo planar imaging to provide blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) contrast. They underwent preprocessing that included slice timing correction, rigid body motion correction, spatial smoothing using a Gaussian kernel, and spatial normalization to Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space using DPARSF 4.3 (http://rfmri.org/dpabi).
The stimulation area was guided by T1-weighted MRI scans acquired using a Siemens 3 Tesla scanner equipped with a 20-channel phased array coil. The placement of the stimulation coil over the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) was facilitated by a frameless stereotaxic neuronavigation system (LOCALITE Biomedical Visualization Systems GmbH, Sankt Augustin, Germany). To ensure precise targeting during the stimulation session, real-time monitoring was employed (Quesque & Brass, 2019).
The iTBS protocol was administered using a MagPro X100 device with a Cool-B65 coil, which features an integrated cooling system. The iTBS stimulation followed a theta-burst pattern of three quick pulses with 20-millisecond intervals over three minutes, delivered at 100% of each participant's resting motor threshold. The total session duration was 3 minutes and 9 seconds, with an average stimulation intensity of 42.87% of the maximum output.
Functional MRI (fMRI) data were collected using gradient-echo planar imaging to provide blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) contrast. They underwent preprocessing that included slice timing correction, rigid body motion correction, spatial smoothing using a Gaussian kernel, and spatial normalization to Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space using DPARSF 4.3 (http://rfmri.org/dpabi).
Results:
After identifying the ROIs (Liang et al., 2022; Kim et al., 2017) and extracting time series data from each region, we performed a functional connectivity analysis using Pearson correlation to evaluate the relationships among the ROIs. To compare functional connectivity values between the pre- and post-stimulation groups, we utilized a t-test analysis with Bonferroni correction to account for multiple comparisons across the regions.
Figure 1 displays the mean connectivity matrices and the associated patterns derived from resting-state fMRI analysis for pre-and post-stimulations. As Figure 2 shows, the connection between the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and right anterior insula increased significantly, while the connection between the lateral temporal cortex and anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC) decreased significantly in post-stimulation compared to pre-stimulation.
Figure 1 displays the mean connectivity matrices and the associated patterns derived from resting-state fMRI analysis for pre-and post-stimulations. As Figure 2 shows, the connection between the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and right anterior insula increased significantly, while the connection between the lateral temporal cortex and anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC) decreased significantly in post-stimulation compared to pre-stimulation.
·Fig. 1: A) Mean connectivity matrix for pre and post-stimulation groups. B) Mean connection for pre and post-stimulation on brain cortex
·Fig.2: Functional connections with a significant difference ( p < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected) between pre and post-stimulations
Conclusions:
The lateral temporal cortex is activated when participants engage in inferring the mental states of others (Andrews-Hanna et al., 2010). Conversely, the aMPFC plays a crucial role in self-referential processing and evaluating personal significance, as evidenced by its activation during self-referential judgments compared to those about others (Andrews-Hanna et al., 2010). The TPJ has been identified as a key neural correlate of empathy (Bernhardt & Singer, 2012; Karpouzian-Rogers et al., 2021), while the right anterior insula is specifically involved in the affective dimension of empathetic responses (Fan et al., 2011). These findings suggest that iTBS can effectively modify functional brain connectivity associated with empathy.
Brain Stimulation:
Non-invasive Magnetic/TMS 1
Education, History and Social Aspects of Brain Imaging:
Education, History and Social Aspects of Brain Imaging
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Social Neuroscience Other 2
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural)
fMRI Connectivity and Network Modeling
Keywords:
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Social Interactions
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
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Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel? NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
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Provide references using APA citation style.
2. Bernhardt, B. C., & Singer, T. (2012). The neural basis of empathy. Annual review of neuroscience, 35(1), 1-23.
3. Fan, Y., Duncan, N. W., De Greck, M., & Northoff, G. (2011). Is there a core neural network in empathy? An fMRI based quantitative meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 35(3), 903-911.
4. Karpouzian-Rogers, T., Cobia, D., Petersen, J., Wang, L., Mittal, V. A., Csernansky, J. G., & Smith, M. J. (2021). Cognitive empathy and longitudinal changes in temporo-parietal junction thickness in schizophrenia. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 667656.
5. Kim, S. J., Kim, S. E., Kim, H. E., Han, K., Jeong, B., Kim, J. J., ... & Kim, J. W. (2017). Altered functional connectivity of the default mode network in low-empathy subjects. Yonsei medical journal, 58(5), 1061
6. Liang, Y. S., Zhou, S. Z., Zhang, Y. J., Cai, X. L., Wang, Y., Cheung, E. F., ... & Chan, R. C. (2022). Altered empathy-related resting-state functional connectivity in patients with bipolar disorder. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 1-10
7. Quesque, F., & Brass, M. (2019). The role of the temporoparietal junction in self-other distinction. Brain topography, 32(6), 943-955.