Changes in brain activity of somatoform disorder patients during emotional empathy after multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy.
Somatoform disorder patients show a variety of emotional disturbances including impaired emotion recognition and increased empathic distress. In a previous paper, our group showed that several brain regions involved in emotional processing, such as the parahippocampal gyrus and other regions, were l...
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doaj-e87677c0831845acaee886c5f042f9482020-11-25T03:49:18ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612013-08-01710.3389/fnhum.2013.0041050438Changes in brain activity of somatoform disorder patients during emotional empathy after multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy.Moritz ede Greck0Moritz ede Greck1Annette F Bölter2Lisa eLehmann3Cornelia eUlrich4Eva eStockum5Björn eEnzi6Thilo eHoffmann7Claus eTempelmann8Manfred eBeutel9Jörg eFrommer10Georg eNorthoff11University Medicine MainzUniversity Hospital LeipzigUniversity Hospital MagdeburgKlinikum BielefeldFachklinikum UchtspringeUniversity Hospital MagdeburgLWL University HospitalDiakoniewerk HalleUniversity Hospital MagdeburgUniversity Medicine MainzUniversity Hospital MagdeburgUniversity of OttawaSomatoform disorder patients show a variety of emotional disturbances including impaired emotion recognition and increased empathic distress. In a previous paper, our group showed that several brain regions involved in emotional processing, such as the parahippocampal gyrus and other regions, were less activated in pre-treatment somatoform disorder patients (compared to healthy controls) during an empathy task. Since the parahippocampal gyrus is involved in emotional memory, its decreased activation might reflect the repression of emotional memories (which - according to psychoanalytical concepts - plays an important role in somatoform disorder). Psychodynamic psychotherapy aims at increasing the understanding of emotional conflicts as well as uncovering repressed emotions. We were interested, whether brain activity in the parahippocampal gyrus normalized after (inpatient) multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy. Using fMRI, subjects were scanned while they shared the emotional states of presented facial stimuli expressing anger, disgust, joy and a neutral expression; distorted stimuli with unrecognizable content served as control condition. 15 somatoform disorder patients were scanned twice, pre and post multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy; in addition, 15 age-matched healthy control subjects were investigated. Effects of psychotherapy on hemodynamic responses were analyzed implementing two approaches: (i) an a priori region of interest approach and (ii) a voxelwise whole brain analysis.Both analyses revealed increased hemodynamic responses in the left and right parahippocampal gyrus (and other regions) after multimodal psychotherapy in the contrast ‘empathy with anger’-‘control’. Our results are in line with psychoanalytical concepts about somatoform disorder. They suggest the parahippocampal gyrus is crucially involved in the neurobiological mechanisms which underly the emotional deficits of somatoform disorder patients.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00410/fullPsychotherapyfMRIemotional empathypschodynamicsomatoform disorder |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Moritz ede Greck Moritz ede Greck Annette F Bölter Lisa eLehmann Cornelia eUlrich Eva eStockum Björn eEnzi Thilo eHoffmann Claus eTempelmann Manfred eBeutel Jörg eFrommer Georg eNorthoff |
spellingShingle |
Moritz ede Greck Moritz ede Greck Annette F Bölter Lisa eLehmann Cornelia eUlrich Eva eStockum Björn eEnzi Thilo eHoffmann Claus eTempelmann Manfred eBeutel Jörg eFrommer Georg eNorthoff Changes in brain activity of somatoform disorder patients during emotional empathy after multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Psychotherapy fMRI emotional empathy pschodynamic somatoform disorder |
author_facet |
Moritz ede Greck Moritz ede Greck Annette F Bölter Lisa eLehmann Cornelia eUlrich Eva eStockum Björn eEnzi Thilo eHoffmann Claus eTempelmann Manfred eBeutel Jörg eFrommer Georg eNorthoff |
author_sort |
Moritz ede Greck |
title |
Changes in brain activity of somatoform disorder patients during emotional empathy after multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy. |
title_short |
Changes in brain activity of somatoform disorder patients during emotional empathy after multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy. |
title_full |
Changes in brain activity of somatoform disorder patients during emotional empathy after multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy. |
title_fullStr |
Changes in brain activity of somatoform disorder patients during emotional empathy after multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Changes in brain activity of somatoform disorder patients during emotional empathy after multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy. |
title_sort |
changes in brain activity of somatoform disorder patients during emotional empathy after multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy. |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
issn |
1662-5161 |
publishDate |
2013-08-01 |
description |
Somatoform disorder patients show a variety of emotional disturbances including impaired emotion recognition and increased empathic distress. In a previous paper, our group showed that several brain regions involved in emotional processing, such as the parahippocampal gyrus and other regions, were less activated in pre-treatment somatoform disorder patients (compared to healthy controls) during an empathy task. Since the parahippocampal gyrus is involved in emotional memory, its decreased activation might reflect the repression of emotional memories (which - according to psychoanalytical concepts - plays an important role in somatoform disorder). Psychodynamic psychotherapy aims at increasing the understanding of emotional conflicts as well as uncovering repressed emotions. We were interested, whether brain activity in the parahippocampal gyrus normalized after (inpatient) multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy. Using fMRI, subjects were scanned while they shared the emotional states of presented facial stimuli expressing anger, disgust, joy and a neutral expression; distorted stimuli with unrecognizable content served as control condition. 15 somatoform disorder patients were scanned twice, pre and post multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy; in addition, 15 age-matched healthy control subjects were investigated. Effects of psychotherapy on hemodynamic responses were analyzed implementing two approaches: (i) an a priori region of interest approach and (ii) a voxelwise whole brain analysis.Both analyses revealed increased hemodynamic responses in the left and right parahippocampal gyrus (and other regions) after multimodal psychotherapy in the contrast ‘empathy with anger’-‘control’. Our results are in line with psychoanalytical concepts about somatoform disorder. They suggest the parahippocampal gyrus is crucially involved in the neurobiological mechanisms which underly the emotional deficits of somatoform disorder patients. |
topic |
Psychotherapy fMRI emotional empathy pschodynamic somatoform disorder |
url |
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00410/full |
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