emma j lawrence

Research

Conferences

Some of our data has, or is soon to be, presented at conferences. Here are the full references and some abstracts:

Lawrence, E.J., Shaw, P., Baker, D., Patel, M.X., Sierra, M., Medford, N. & David, A.S. (2008) Empathy and Enduring Depersonalisation: the Role of Self-Related Processes. Mind and Life Summer Research Institute on Affective Neuroscience.

Nosarti, C., Lawrence, E.J., Murray, R., Rifkin, L., Williams, S.C, McGuire, P.K. (2007) Altered Neuronal Activation During Completion of a Visuo-Spatial Learning Task in Preterm Adolescents. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 33 (2), 203-631.

Lawrence, E.J., Shaw, P., Giampietro,V.P., Murphy, D., Brammer, M.J and David, A.S. (2006) The Neural Correlates of Social Perception and Empathy in Asperger's Syndrome: the Role of 'Shared Representations'. Cognitive Neuroscience Society AGM.
See abstract

Nosarti. C., Lawrence, E.J. et al., (2006) The Neural Basis of Episodic Memory on the Path to Adulthood. Cognitive Neuroscience Society AGM.

Lawrence, E.J., Nosarti, C., Rubia, K., McGuire, P.K., Rifkin, L., & Murray, R.M. (2006) The Neural Correlates of Response Inhibition in Adults Born Preterm. Schizophrenia Research, 81, 37-308 See abstract

Lawrence, E.J., Shaw, P., Baker, D., Patel, M.X., & David, A.S. (2005) Separating Cognitive from Affective Empathy: Data from Two Clinical Groups. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Section A, 58, 1534 - 1559 See abstract

Lawrence, E.J., Shaw, P. & David, A.S. (2005) Empathic Ability in Asperger's Syndrome. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 2005; 76:893-900 See abstract

Lawrence, E.J., Shaw, P., Surguladaze, S., Giampietro, V., Dalton, J., & David, A.S. (2004) The Neural Correlates of Non-Verbal Social Sensitivity. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16 (supp), p 58. See abstract

Peters, E.R., Colbert, S., Linney, Y., Lawrence, E.J. & Garety, P., (2003) Cognitive Biases Involved in the Formation of Delusional Beliefs. Schizophrenia Research, 60, (1), 178.

Peters, E.R., Linney, Y., Colbert, S., & Lawrence, E.J. (2002) Cognitive Biases Involved in the Formation of Delusional Beliefs. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 106, 45.

Shaw, P., Lawrence, E.J., Baron-Cohen, S. & David, A.S. (2002) The Role of the Amygdala in Social Sensitivity. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 985, 508. See abstract

Abstracts

Evidence suggests we use the same mechanisms for both producing and perceiving actions. Such 'shared representations' may also underlie empathy. Although it is well-documented that people with autistic spectrum disorders have difficulty decoding other people's beliefs and other representational states (theory of mind), data regarding the use of a 'shared representations' strategy is lacking. We employed event-related fMRI to explore this further in a group of 9 people with an ICD-10 diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome (AS) and 12 healthy volunteers. We used an adapted version of the Profile of Non-Verbal Sensitivity (Lawrence et al., 2005) which taps social perception using brief silent video clips. Participants chose one of two words that best described the state conveyed by the actor, or in the control condition using the same clips, the word describing which parts of the body were visible (non-social perception). No reaction time or accuracy differences were observed in an offline version of the task. Task related increases in BOLD signal were observed in controls in regions such as the inferior frontal gyrus and premotor areas confirming the use of a 'shared representations'. However, participants with AS showed decreased BOLD signal in this network, in particular in the inferior frontal gyrus, and in 'theory of mind' areas such as the medial frontal lobe. This data suggest that in the face of comparable performance, the neural network subserving empathy and social perception differs in people with AS, indicative of the use of an alternative cognitive strategy when decoding dynamic social stimuli.

Lawrence, E.J., Nosarti, C., Rubia, K., McGuire, P.K., Rifkin, L., & Murray, R.M. (2006)

The Neural Correlates of Response Inhibition in Adults Born Preterm.

Background: Despite intact performance, in comparison to controls, individuals who were born very preterm display altered neural activation during response inhibition at age 14. This study explored response inhibition in a similar sample aged 20. Methods: A ‘go-no-go’ task was used including ‘oddball’ trials for attentional control. A rapid, mixed trial event-related fMRI design was employed. 26 preterms (16 males; age 20.11 years, ± .65; gestation 28.77 weeks ± 1.94) and 21 controls (9 males; age 20.13 years ± 1.71) were tested. Participants were scanned using a GE Signa 1.5T neuro-optimised MR system (General Electric, Milwaukee, USA). 3.3mm thick high resolution structural scans were acquired along with T2-weighted images at 16 7mm thick near-axial planes. Results: There were no group differences in performance. When ‘no go’ were contrasted with ‘oddball’ trials, preterm participants showed increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal in the middle temporal gyrus (BA39) extending to the angular gyrus and inferior parietal lobule (BA40), and precuneus (BA7/BA31) extending to the cingulate gyrus (BA31) and paracentral lobule (BA4). Conclusions: In comparison to controls, and despite intact performance, preterm individuals exhibit differential neural activation during response inhibition. The precuneus and cingulate gyrus have been implicated in attentional shifts and error monitoring suggesting this group may have found this task more effortful. These data are of relevance to conditions where the functional correlates of response inhibition are altered i.e. ADHD and schizophrenia.

Lawrence, E.J., Shaw, P., & David, A.S. (2005)

Empathic ability in Asperger's Syndrome.

Aims: The intention was to explore empathic ability in Asperger's Syndrome (AS) using a battery of tasks to tap both its dimensions: affective and cognitive (or theory of mind). Methods: Sixteen people with an ICD-10 diagnosis of AS and 16 controls were tested. Cognitive empathy was assessed using standardised measures such as first and second order theory of mind vignettes (Rowe et al., 2001). Affective empathy was measured using a novel paradigm based on diary extracts detailing emotional events. Results: There were significant group differences between the AS and control group on the cognitive empathy tasks. However, performance on the affective empathy measures was remarkably similar between groups. Conclusions: The widespread belief that there is a blanket empathy deficit in AS may be misguided. This study suggests that when specifically directed, people with AS may be able to experience affective empathy. Instead it seems the problem may lie in spontaneously attending to, and decoding, emotional stimuli in the environment. As Haddon's (2003) character Christopher said when shown a picture of a sad face, "I knew that it meant 'sad', which is what I felt when I found the dead dog."

Lawrence, E.J., Shaw, P., Baker, D., Patel, M.X., & David, A.S. (2005)

Separating cognitive from affective empathy: Data from two clinical groups.

Empathy is conceptualised as having two components: affective and cognitive. We tested this assumption using novel and standardised tasks with 2 different clinical groups and a comparison group. Participants included 16 people diagnosed with depersonalisation disorder (DPD) - which includes a subjective loss of empathy; 16 people diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) - which is often characterised as a disorder of empathy; and 48 control volunteers. We used a self-report measure (EQ: Baron-Cohen et al., 2004), an objective measure of cognitive empathy - the 'Eyes' task (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001), and a novel diary extract task measuring affective empathy. The extract was accompanied by an implicit measure of physiological arousal - speech rate - to ascertain whether participants own arousal was congruent with the protagonists. Data from an additional 10 people with AS were included for the 'Eyes task'. The DPD group showed a disruption in affective empathy displaying speech rate significantly different from the other groups, and incongruent with the emotional state of the protagonist. Cognitive empathy was nevertheless intact. In contrast, the AS group showed deficits on the cognitive empathy tasks alongside preservation of affective empathy. These data suggest cognitive and affective empathy are separable, which may impact on behaviour.

Lawrence, E.J., Shaw, P., Surguladaze, S., Giampietro, V., Dalton, J., & David, A.S. (2004)

The neural correlates of non-verbal social sensitivity

Shared representations' are thought to underlie some types of affective state attribution and this strategy may be useful when the target state is particularly difficult to decode. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore whether 'shared representations' were employed to decode dynamic stimuli of varying difficulty in 12 healthy volunteers (6 men and 6 women). The online version of the Revised Profile of Non-Verbal Sensitivity is a novel fMRI paradigm, adapted from a well-known mental state attribution task (Rosenthal et al, 1979). A series of brief silent video clips of an actor displaying different mental states were presented in 3 channels - face, figure and body - to vary the richness of the available cues. Participants chose one of two words that best described the target mental state. In the control conditions, participants viewed the same clips but made a non-mental state decision and viewed blank clips accompanied by a simple button-press task. The data was analysed using in-house software based on non-parametric methods. Brain activation specific to the experimental condition was found in the pre-motor cortex & SMA, supramarginal gyrus, precuneus and the superior temporal and angular gyri. These brain areas are consistent with the use of 'shared representations', adding to the growing evidence that this approach is helpful in appreciating others' mental states. This task may be of future value in determining whether people in different clinical groups can adopt this strategy.

Shaw, P., Lawrence, E.J., Baron-Cohen, S. & David, A.S. (2002)

The role of the amygdala in social sensitivity.

Introduction. The ability to detect the emotional states of other on the basis of their external appearance is a fundamental skill in social cognition. The eye-region of the human face provides a particularly rich display of both basic (e.g. happy, sad) and more complex emotional states1 (e.g. pride, desire). Findings from functional imaging and human lesion studies suggest the amygdala may be a pivotal component of the neural substrate underpinning the perception of such complex emotional states1-3. We examined the performance of a relatively large group of subjects with unilateral developmental lesions of the amygdala on a perceptual test of social sensitivity. We hypothesized that this group would be impaired in the ability to detect the complex emotional states of others on the basis of the appearance of the eye region. Method: Subjects. The amygdala damage group comprised 14 subjects with unilateral developmental lesions of the amygdala- seven of which were confined to the amygdala. Seven had left sided lesions (three male, four female) and seven had right sided lesions (three male, four female). In nine subjects the lesions had the neuroradiological appearance of congenital non-progressive tumours (dysembryoblastic neuroepithelial tumours), two had cavernous hemangiomas and three had mesial sclerosis. The clinical control group of ten subjects had similar developmental lesions of the temporal lobes which spared the amygdala. In this group, six had left sided lesions (two male, four female) and four had right sided lesions (one male and three female). 53 subjects with no neurological disorders were also tested. In the experimental task (the Revised Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task4) subjects were presented with 36 photos of the eye-region of actors (see figure 1). They were required to choose which of four words best described the complex emotional state of the portrayed. As a control task subjects judged the gender and direction of eye-gaze and the Benton Facial Recognition Task. Results. There was a significant main effect of group on the number of correct responses on the Eyes Test (one way ANOVA F(2,73)=20.98, p<0.001). A post hoc Scheffe test (P=0.05) demonstrated that the amygdala damage group performed significantly worse than the clinical and non-clinical control groups, who did not differ significantly from one another (see figure 2). The main effect for group held after covarying for age, gender and verbal IQ. There were no significant group differences on scores in the control tasks. All subjects scored in the normal range in the Benton. Conclusions. Subjects with unilateral lesions of the amygdala are selectively impaired in their ability of attribute complex mental states of others on the basis of their appearance. Lesions of the temporal lobes which spare the amygdala do not affect this ability. This human lesion study provides further evidence that the amygdala may play a role in one of the fundamental processes underlying empathy: the identification of the emotional state of others.