Alterations in event-related potential responses to empathy for pain in Parkinson’s disease on and off medication

Abstract

OBJECTIVE\nHow Parkinson s disease (PD) affects an individual s empathic capacity remains poorly understood. By using the event-related potential (ERP) technique, we sought to: (1) study the temporal dynamics of empathic responses in patients with PD; (2) explore whether dopaminergic medication modulates empathic processing.\n\n\nMETHODS\nTwenty-six patients with early-to-moderate PD (13 on- and 13 off-medication) and 14 healthy controls performed an empathy-for-pain paradigm test while we recorded their electroencephalography. The participants responded to neutral or painful pictures during an active empathic condition (pain judgment task) and a control condition that was manipulated by task demands (laterality judgment task).\n\n\nRESULTS\nThe ERP results demonstrated an early automatic frontal response and a late controlled parietal response to pain in healthy elderly controls. The observed early and late ERP responses were detected in the on-medication patients but not in the off-medication patients.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nPD is associated with deficits in both affective and cognitive empathic responses, dopaminergic medication may have the potential to alleviate these deficits.\n\n\nSIGNIFICANCE\nThis study helps to understand empathic deficits in patients with PD. Within-subject studies are required to reliably assess the effect of dopaminergic medication on empathic processing.