Fig. 3.

Increasing empathic concern over time related to higher pregenual ACC-PAG and pregenual ACC-ACC connectivity in Aβ+ participants. A) Forward-selection hierarchical regression models in Aβ+ participants found greater connectivity between bilateral pregenual ACC and PAG as well as contralateral ACC predicted increasing empathic concern over time. Scatterplots are provided to illustrate the association that z-scored empathic concern trajectories have with mean connectivity between B) left pregenual ACC and PAG; C) right pregenual ACC and PAG; and D) left pregenual ACC and right pregenual ACC. These analyses controlled for fixed effects of age, sex, the interval between participants’ last IRI measure and tf-fMRI scans (IRI – tf-fMRI), and APOE*E4 status as well as random intercepts for each participant. ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; aMCC, anterior midcingulate cortex; and PAG, periaqueductal gray.