Reduced Modulation of Theta and Beta Oscillations Mediates Empathy Impairment in Parkinson's Disease

Empathy is an inaccessible part of advanced social cognitive functions in humans. Impairment of empathy greatly affects the quality of life of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) but the underlying neurophysiologic mechanisms have not been established.

The dynamic process of brain oscillations in PD pain empathy was explored and the mechanism of empathy damage was studied.

A total of 27 patients with PD and 13 healthy controls were recruited to undergo a pain judgment task, and the event-related potentials were recorded. This study compared the changes in theta and beta oscillations among two groups after the presentation of painful and neutral stimuli.

Time-frequency analysis results revealed that patients with PD exhibited event-related theta oscillation synchronization and beta oscillation desynchronization during pain empathy. Compared to healthy controls, patients with PD exhibited a reduced magnitude of beta oscillation desynchronization in response to painful stimuli and attenuated synchronization of theta oscillations induced by neutral stimuli. There are abnormal beta power differences between painful and neutral stimuli, while no differences were found in theta power in PD. Moreover, a positive correlation existed between the degree of beta oscillation desynchronization associated with painful stimuli and the accuracy of pain judgments.

Pain empathy deficits in PD were associated with reduced dynamic modulation of brain theta and beta oscillations.