Disorders of interpersonal empathy
Disorders of interpersonal empathy - a fractionated class of neurodevelopmental and clinical conditions caused by selective impairments in the neurocognitive systems that allow individuals to share or understand others' emotions, rather than a single global deficit (Decety & Moriguchi, 2007, p. 14; Blair, 2008, p. 158).
Psychopathy: Characterized by a selective deficit in emotional empathy (physiological resonance to distress cues like fear or sadness) due to developmental amygdala dysfunction, while cognitive empathy remains completely intact (Blair, 2008, p. 158, 162; Bird & Viding, 2014, p. 28).
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD): Characterized by the reverse dissociation; individuals show impairments in cognitive empathy (Theory of Mind/mentalizing), whereas the core emotional and subcortical pathways for affective sharing are fundamentally preserved (Blair, 2008, p. 158, 164; Bird & Viding, 2014, p. 30).
Alexithymia: Defined by a subclinical inability to identify and describe one's own emotional states due to a dysfunctional Affective Representation System (anterior insula), which subsequently impairs the ability to accurately mirror and process identical emotional states in others (Decety & Moriguchi, 2007, p. 16; Bird & Viding, 2014, p. 33).
Blair, R. J. R. (2008). Fine Cuts of Empathy and the Amygdala: Dissociable Deficits in Psychopathy and Autism. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61(1), p. 157–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470210701508855.
Bird, G., & Viding, E. (2014). The Self to Other Model of Empathy: Providing a New Framework for Understanding Empathy Impairments in Psychopathy, Autism, and Alexithymia. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 47, p. 520–532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neu
Decety, J., & Moriguchi, Y. (2007). The Empathic Brain and Its Dysfunction in Psychiatric Populations: Implications for Intervention Across Different Clinical Conditions. BioPsychoSocial Medicine, 1(22). https://doi.org/10.1186/1751-0759-1-22.