Alzheimer's Disease and Empathic Abilities: The Proposed Role of the Cingulate Cortex

Abstract

In recent years there has been increasing interest in examining the role of empathic abilities in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Empathy, the ability to understand and share another person's feelings, implies the existence of emotional and cognitive processes and is a pivotal aspect for success in social interactions. In turn, self-empathy is oriented to one's thoughts and feelings. Decline of empathy and self-empathy can occur during the AD continuum and can be linked to different neuroanatomical pathways in which the cingulate cortex may play a crucial role. Here, we will summarize the involvement of empathic abilities through the AD continuum and further discuss the potential neurocognitive mechanisms that contribute to decline of empathy and self-empathy in AD.

Keywords: Aging; Alzheimer’s disease; anosognosia; cingulate cortex; empathy.

Fig. 1

Neuroanatomical bases underlying social decision-making. Social decision-making, which is crucial to establishing and maintaining successful social relationships, is supported by two pivotal brain regions: 1) the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) that plays an important role in the ability to recognize emotions by evaluating predictions about the emotional states of others; and 2) the orbital frontal cortex (OFC) that judges the possible choices of behavior. Damage in any of these two areas could affect social cognition.