同理心是了解及經驗他人情緒的能力，它是利他行為重要的前驅物，在人際關係以及社會能力扮演重要角色。Hoffman從發展心理學的觀點提出一個同理心發展的模型，其中描述兒童對於他人痛苦的反應會從自我中心的個人不適(personal distress)隨著年紀的增長轉變為關心他人的同情心(sympathy)，進而產生利他行為。最近Decety從認知神經科學的角度主張情感覺醒(affective arousal)是最早的同理心要素，而情緒理解(emotion understanding)隨後於二至三歲開始成熟，最後情緒調控(emotional regulation)的能力從兒童到青少年期間持續發展。過去我們的研究團隊讓成人觀看由三張連續圖片組成描繪疼痛及不痛的動畫，請受試者進行疼痛判斷同時記錄腦波。結果發現即將在他人發生的傷害會引起N260的預期效應，而感受他人的疼痛會引起增大的晚期正向波(late positive potentials, LPPs)。N260的振幅愈大不舒服程度的評分愈高，而LPPs的振幅愈大則人際反應指數(interpersonal reactivity index)中觀點取替(perspective taking)的人格傾向愈高。本研究探討從兒童早期到晚期疼痛同理心的神經發展，讓成人及兒童觀看疼痛或不痛的動畫同時紀錄腦電波，量測N260及LPPs在觀看疼痛及不痛動畫之間的差異波，分別作為疼痛同理心中情感覺醒及情感評估(affective evaluation)的指標。結果發現三至九歲的兒童中，N260差異波隨著年齡減小，社會化領域的適應能力行為表現愈多者N260差異波愈小；另一方面，LPP差異波隨著年齡增加，人際關係次領域適應行為表現愈多者LPP差異波愈大。這樣的結果暗示疼痛同理心發展的過程中，情感覺醒會隨年齡而減少，情感評估會隨年齡增加，因此對於他人痛苦的反應會可能會從自我中心的個人不適轉變為關心他人的同情心，此結果同時支持Hoffman以及Decety的理論。 Empathy, the ability to understand and experience others’ emotion, is thought to be an important precursor to prosocial behavior and plays a critical role in interpersonal relationship and social competence. From the perspective of developmental psychology, Hoffman proposed a model which outlined the developmental shift over time from self-oriented personal distress in response to others’ distress to sympathy for others, resulting in prosocial behavior. Recently, Decety, from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience, argued that affective arousal is the first component in place in development, followed by emotion understanding which develops lately and begins to be mature around the age of 2- to 3- years old, and finally the emotional regulation which develops throughout childhood and adolescent. In a previous study of our research team, EEG were recorded when adult participants performed pain judgment about dynamic animations which consisted of three consecutive pictures depicting painful or non-painful situations in others. This study revealed an anticipatory effect of N260 evoked by an imminent harm to others and increased late positive potentials (LPPs) when perceiving pain. Larger amplitudes of N260 were correlated with higher the ratings of unpleasantness. On the other hand, larger amplitudes of LPPs were correlated with higher dispositional measure of perspective taking in the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI). In the present study, we aimed to investigate the neurodevelopmental change of pain empathy from early to late childhood. We recorded EEG in adults and children when they were in sight of the visual animations depicting painful or non-painful situations. We measured the differential waves of N260 and LPPs as the indexes of affective arousal and affective evaluation in pain empathy, respectively. The results showed that, in children aged from 3 to 9, the differential waves of N260 decreased with age. More adaptive behaviors in socialization domain were correlated with smaller differential waves of N260. The amplitudes LPPs increased with age. More adaptive behaviors in the sub-domain of interpersonal relationship were correlated with larger differential waves of LPPs. These findings suggested a decrease in affective arousal and an increase in affective evaluation through the development course of pain empathy, which may resulted in transformation from self-focused personal distress to other-focused sympathy. These results supported both Hoffman’s and Decety’s theories.
