注意线索对自闭特质个体疼痛共情的影响：来自事件相关电位的证据

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2020.00294

摘要/Abstract

摘要：

自闭特质个体在日常生活中表现出共情缺损, 但其程度较自闭症谱系障碍个体低, 并且注意线索和特异性的面孔加工可能会影响他们的共情加工进程。因此, 本研究采用事件相关电位(ERP)技术, 以疼痛面孔图片作为刺激材料, 让自闭特质组和控制组分别完成疼痛判断任务(该任务中被试的注意指向疼痛线索)和吸引力判断任务(该任务中被试的注意不指向疼痛线索)。结果发现, 相比控制组, 自闭特质组在吸引力判断任务中疼痛面孔图片诱发的P3波幅更大, 而在疼痛判断任务中两组没有显著差异。这表明注意线索会影响自闭特质个体对他人疼痛面孔的共情反应, 当自闭特质个体不注意他人面孔的疼痛线索时, 其疼痛共情能力会减弱。

关键词: 共情, 疼痛共情, 自闭症谱系障碍, 自闭特质, 事件相关电位

Abstract:

Previous studies have found that the behavioral patterns of individuals with autistic traits are similar to those of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). That is, individuals with autistic traits show the impairment of empathy in daily life, but the severity of such impairment is not enough to meet the clinical diagnostic criteria for ASD. The similar behaviors between the two mean that studying individuals with autistic traits can help us understand the empathy characteristics of ASD. At present, the results of studies on the empathy for pain of autistic individuals are not consistent. It is possible that attention cues and specific face processing affect their empathy processing.
Therefore, in this study, pictures of painful faces were used as stimulus materials, and the event-related potentials (ERP) technique was adopted to explore the effect of attention cues on the pain empathy processing in autistic individuals. The study randomly selected 30 healthy undergraduates (15 males) as the autistic trait group, and 30 healthy undergraduates (16 males) as the control group. The experiment, based on three-factor mixed design (2×2×2), included two tasks: 1) Pain judgment task: The subjects were required to judge whether there was pain in the pictures of the painful faces (with a needle in the cheek) and the pictures of the non-painful faces (touched gently with a cotton swab), where the subjects' attention was directed to the pain cues. 2) Attractiveness judgment task: The subjects were required to judge whether the faces were attractive or unattractive, where the subjects' attention did not point to the pain cues. EEG during the observation of pictures under different experiment tasks was recorded by a 64-channel amplifier using a standard 10-20 system (Brain Products).
The ERP results revealed that the attention cues would influence the late cognitive processing stage component P3, but not the early automatic component. Compared with the control group, the autistic trait group induced a larger P3 amplitude by the painful face pictures in the attractiveness judgment task; however, in the pain judgment task, there was no significant difference between the two groups.
This suggests that top-down attention to visual pain cues may modulate the late processing of pain empathy in autistic individuals, as manifested in the following fact: When autistic individuals pay attention to pain cues, they have similar empathic neural responses to the control group; when they do not pay attention to pain cues, they process other people's painful faces to a higher degree. This result also suggests that autistic individuals may avoid other people's face information, and provides evidence for the empathy deficit of autistic individuals. This conclusion is helpful for understanding the cognitive processing characteristics and influencing factors of pain empathy in ASD.

Key words: empathy, empathy for pain, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), autistic traits, event related potentials (ERP)

中图分类号:

B845
R395

李雄, 李祚山, 向滨洋, 孟景. (2020). 注意线索对自闭特质个体疼痛共情的影响：来自事件相关电位的证据. 心理学报, 52(3), 294-306.

LI Xiong, LI Zuoshan, XIANG Binyang, MENG Jing. (2020). Empathy for pain in Individuals with autistic traits influenced by attention cues: Evidence from an ERP study. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 52(3), 294-306.

图/表 8

表1 被试年龄与AQ分数信息表

组别	年龄(岁)					AQ分数
组别	最小值	最大值	M ± SD	t	p	最小值	最大值	M ± SD	t	p
自闭特质组 (男=15, 女=15)	18	23	20.20 ± 1.35	1.23	0.224	27	35	29.80 ± 2.09	31.81	< 0.001
控制组 (男=16, 女=14)	18	23	19.77 ± 1.38	1.23	0.224	9	15	13.03 ± 1.99	31.81	< 0.001

图1 实验所用材料图片示例(左列为疼痛图片, 右列为非疼痛图片)

表2 刺激材料评估数据(M ± SD)

项目名称	疼痛图片	非疼痛图片	t	p
疼痛程度	6.77 ± 0.24	1.50 ± 0.15	100.64	< 0.001
吸引力程度	3.60 ± 0.29	3.67 ± 0.50	-0.71	0.482
情绪效价	3.17 ± 0.16	3.39 ± 0.24	-4.29	< 0.001
情绪唤醒度	2.50 ± 0.17	2.45 ± 0.18	1.06	0.292

图2 实验流程图(上行为疼痛判断任务实验流程, 下行为吸引力判断任务实验流程)

表3 行为数据描述统计(M ± SD)

组别	图片类型	反应时		主观等级评分
组别	图片类型	疼痛判断任务	吸引力判断任务	疼痛程度	吸引力程度	情绪反应
自闭特质组	疼痛图片	793.81 ± 332.36	802.16 ± 146.36	5.53 ± 1.36	3.44 ± 1.07	5.64 ± 0.99
自闭特质组	非疼痛图片	763.97 ± 298.88	854.85 ± 213.89	1.85 ± 1.12	3.86 ± 1.28	5.12 ± 1.14
控制组	疼痛图片	780.48 ± 275.31	772.02 ± 134.04	5.75 ± 1.34	3.58 ± 0.81	5.70 ± 0.66
控制组	非疼痛图片	770.85 ± 281.18	779.73 ± 138.93	1.78 ± 1.20	3.85 ± 1.01	5.16 ± 0.63

表4 ERP数据方差分析结果

变量	N1			N170			P2			N2			P3			LPC
变量	F	p	η²_p	F	p	η²_p	F	p	η²_p	F	p	η²_p	F	p	η²_p	F	p	η²_p
组别	0.30	0.584	0.01	0.22	0.638	<0.001	0.45	0.506	0.01	0.81	0.373	0.01	2.77	0.102	0.05	0.49	0.486	0.01
图片类型	0.34	0.562	0.01	0.32	0.574	0.01	0.07	0.792	<0.001	0.01	0.935	<0.001	6.08	0.017	0.10	<0.001	0.949	<0.001
任务类型	0.04	0.836	<0.001	4.59	0.036	0.07	0.45	0.505	0.01	29.02	<0.001	0.33	4.21	0.045	0.07	38.80	<0.001	0.40
组别×图片类型	0.01	0.907	<0.001	1.49	0.227	0.03	0.87	0.356	0.02	<0.001	0.953	<0.001	0.72	0.398	0.01	0.72	0.400	0.01
组别×任务类型	0.01	0.937	<0.001	0.11	0.747	<0.001	<0.001	0.997	<0.001	0.31	0.577	0.01	0.36	0.553	0.01	0.30	0.589	0.01
图片类型×任务类型	0.11	0.740	<0.001	0.12	0.735	<0.001	0.48	0.490	0.01	0.06	0.801	<0.001	1.05	0.310	0.02	10.25	0.002	0.15
组别×图片类型×任务类型	1.42	0.238	0.02	10.90	0.002	0.16	10.05	0.002	0.15	3.47	0.067	0.06	12.64	0.001	0.18	11.98	0.001	0.17

图3 自闭特质组和控制组在不同条件下的波形图、地形图和条形图注：上图为两组被试对疼痛图片和非疼痛图片分别进行疼痛判断任务和吸引力判断任务时, 在Fz、Pz、PO7电极点上自闭特质组(上半部分)和控制组(下半部分)的波形图和地形图(左列), 以及条形图(右列)。4种条件下(对疼痛图片进行疼痛判断任务：黑色实线和黑色条形图; 对非疼痛图片进行疼痛判断任务：黑色虚线和横线条形图; 对疼痛图片进行吸引力判断任务：灰色实线和灰色条形图; 对非疼痛图片进行吸引力判断任务：灰色虚线和斜线条形图)的平均波幅差异性检验结果如条形图所示。用M ± SD表示条形图中的数据。地形图中黑色框标记的区域表示该成分所纳入分析的电极点。 ns表示没有显著差异, *表示p < 0.05, **表示p < 0.01, ***表示p < 0.001。

图4 两组被试对疼痛和非疼痛图片的波形图、地形图和条形图注：上图为两组被试在Fz、Pz、PO7电极点上对疼痛图片(上半部分)和非疼痛图片(下半部分)分别进行疼痛判断任务和吸引力判断任务时的波形图和地形图(左列), 以及条形图(右列)。4种条件下(自闭特质组完成疼痛判断任务：黑色实线和黑色条形图; 控制组完成疼痛判断任务：黑色虚线和横线条形图; 自闭特质组完成吸引力判断任务：灰色实线和灰色条形图; 控制组完成吸引力判断任务：灰色虚线和斜线条形图)的平均波幅差异性检验结果如条形图所示。用M ± SD表示条形图中的数据。地形图中黑色框标记的区域表示该成分所纳入分析的电极点。 ns表示没有显著差异, *表示p < 0.05, ***表示p < 0.001。

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