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Charbonneau I, Guérette J, Cormier S, Blais C, Lalonde-Beaudoin G, Smith FW, Fiset D. The role of spatial frequencies for facial pain categorization. Sci Rep 2021; 11:14357. [PMID: 34257357 PMCID: PMC8277883 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-93776-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies on low-level visual information underlying pain categorization have led to inconsistent findings. Some show an advantage for low spatial frequency information (SFs) and others a preponderance of mid SFs. This study aims to clarify this gap in knowledge since these results have different theoretical and practical implications, such as how far away an observer can be in order to categorize pain. This study addresses this question by using two complementary methods: a data-driven method without a priori expectations about the most useful SFs for pain recognition and a more ecological method that simulates the distance of stimuli presentation. We reveal a broad range of important SFs for pain recognition starting from low to relatively high SFs and showed that performance is optimal in a short to medium distance (1.2-4.8 m) but declines significantly when mid SFs are no longer available. This study reconciles previous results that show an advantage of LSFs over HSFs when using arbitrary cutoffs, but above all reveal the prominent role of mid-SFs for pain recognition across two complementary experimental tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabelle Charbonneau
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada
| | - Joël Guérette
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada
| | - Stéphanie Cormier
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada
| | - Caroline Blais
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada
| | - Guillaume Lalonde-Beaudoin
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada
| | - Fraser W Smith
- University of East Anglia School of Psychology, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Daniel Fiset
- Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, J8X3X7, Canada.
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Facial Features Underlying the Decoding of Pain Expressions. THE JOURNAL OF PAIN 2019; 20:728-738. [PMID: 30639571 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2019.01.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2018] [Revised: 12/21/2018] [Accepted: 01/06/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Previous research has revealed that the face is a finely tuned medium for pain communication. Studies assessing the decoding of facial expressions of pain have revealed an interesting discrepancy, namely that, despite eyes narrowing being the most frequent facial expression accompanying pain, individuals mostly rely on brow lowering and nose wrinkling/upper lip raising to evaluate pain. The present study verifies if this discrepancy may reflect an interaction between the features coding pain expressions and the features used by observers and stored in their mental representations. Experiment 1 shows that more weight is allocated to the brow lowering and nose wrinkling/upper lip raising, supporting the idea that these features are allocated more importance when mental representations of pain expressions are stored in memory. These 2 features have been associated with negative valence and with the affective dimension of pain, whereas the eyes narrowing feature has been associated more closely with the sensory dimension of pain. However, experiment 2 shows that these 2 features remain more salient than eyes narrowing, even when attention is specifically directed toward the sensory dimension of pain. Together, these results suggest that the features most saliently coded in the mental representation of facial expressions of pain may reflect a bias toward allocating more weight to the affective information encoded in the face. PERSPECTIVE: This work reveals the relative importance of 3 facial features representing the core of pain expressions during pain decoding. The results show that 2 features are over-represented; this finding may potentially be linked with the estimation biases occurring when clinicians and lay persons evaluate pain based on facial appearance.
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Jackson PL, Michon PE, Geslin E, Carignan M, Beaudoin D. EEVEE: the Empathy-Enhancing Virtual Evolving Environment. Front Hum Neurosci 2015; 9:112. [PMID: 25805983 PMCID: PMC4354336 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2014] [Accepted: 02/15/2015] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Empathy is a multifaceted emotional and mental faculty that is often found to be affected in a great number of psychopathologies, such as schizophrenia, yet it remains very difficult to measure in an ecological context. The challenge stems partly from the complexity and fluidity of this social process, but also from its covert nature. One powerful tool to enhance experimental control over such dynamic social interactions has been the use of avatars in virtual reality (VR); information about an individual in such an interaction can be collected through the analysis of his or her neurophysiological and behavioral responses. We have developed a unique platform, the Empathy-Enhancing Virtual Evolving Environment (EEVEE), which is built around three main components: (1) different avatars capable of expressing feelings and emotions at various levels based on the Facial Action Coding System (FACS); (2) systems for measuring the physiological responses of the observer (heart and respiration rate, skin conductance, gaze and eye movements, facial expression); and (3) a multimodal interface linking the avatar's behavior to the observer's neurophysiological response. In this article, we provide a detailed description of the components of this innovative platform and validation data from the first phases of development. Our data show that healthy adults can discriminate different negative emotions, including pain, expressed by avatars at varying intensities. We also provide evidence that masking part of an avatar's face (top or bottom half) does not prevent the detection of different levels of pain. This innovative and flexible platform provides a unique tool to study and even modulate empathy in a comprehensive and ecological manner in various populations, notably individuals suffering from neurological or psychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip L Jackson
- Faculté des Sciences Sociales, École de Psychologie, Université Laval Québec, QC, Canada ; Centre for Research in Rehabilitation and Social Integration (CIRRIS), Université Laval Québec, QC, Canada ; Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Québec (CRIUSMQ), Université Laval Québec, QC, Canada
| | - Pierre-Emmanuel Michon
- Centre for Research in Rehabilitation and Social Integration (CIRRIS), Université Laval Québec, QC, Canada ; Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Québec (CRIUSMQ), Université Laval Québec, QC, Canada
| | - Erik Geslin
- Faculté des Sciences Sociales, École de Psychologie, Université Laval Québec, QC, Canada
| | - Maxime Carignan
- Faculté des Sciences Sociales, École de Psychologie, Université Laval Québec, QC, Canada
| | - Danny Beaudoin
- Faculté des Sciences Sociales, École de Psychologie, Université Laval Québec, QC, Canada
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Wieser MJ, Gerdes ABM, Reicherts P, Pauli P. Mutual influences of pain and emotional face processing. Front Psychol 2014; 5:1160. [PMID: 25352817 PMCID: PMC4195272 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2014] [Accepted: 09/24/2014] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The perception of unpleasant stimuli enhances whereas the perception of pleasant stimuli decreases pain perception. In contrast, the effects of pain on the processing of emotional stimuli are much less known. Especially given the recent interest in facial expressions of pain as a special category of emotional stimuli, a main topic in this research line is the mutual influence of pain and facial expression processing. Therefore, in this mini-review we selectively summarize research on the effects of emotional stimuli on pain, but more extensively turn to the opposite direction namely how pain influences concurrent processing of affective stimuli such as facial expressions. Based on the motivational priming theory one may hypothesize that the perception of pain enhances the processing of unpleasant stimuli and decreases the processing of pleasant stimuli. This review reveals that the literature is only partly consistent with this assumption: pain reduces the processing of pleasant pictures and happy facial expressions, but does not - or only partly - affect processing of unpleasant pictures. However, it was demonstrated that pain selectively enhances the processing of facial expressions if these are pain-related (i.e., facial expressions of pain). Extending a mere affective modulation theory, the latter results suggest pain-specific effects which may be explained by the perception-action model of empathy. Together, these results underscore the important mutual influence of pain and emotional face processing.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Antje B M Gerdes
- Department of Psychology, University of Mannheim Mannheim, Germany
| | | | - Paul Pauli
- Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg Würzburg, Germany
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Khatibi A, Vachon-Presseau E, Schrooten M, Vlaeyen J, Rainville P. Attention effects on vicarious modulation of nociception and pain. Pain 2014; 155:2033-9. [PMID: 25016217 DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2014.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2013] [Revised: 06/27/2014] [Accepted: 07/03/2014] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
The observation of others' facial expressions of pain has been shown to facilitate the observer's nociceptive responses and to increase pain perception. We investigated how this vicarious facilitation effect is modulated by directing the observer's attention toward the meaning of pain expression or the facial movements. In separate trials, participants were instructed to assess the "intensity of the pain expression"(meaning) or to "discriminate the facial movements" in the upper vs lower part of the face shown in 1-second dynamic clips displaying mild, moderate, or strong pain expressions or a neutral control. In 50% of the trials, participants received a painful electrical stimulation to the sural nerve immediately after the presentation of the expression. Low-level nociceptive reactivity was measured with the RIII-response, and pain perception was assessed using pain ratings. Pain induced by the electrical stimulation increased after viewing stronger pain expressions in both tasks, but the RIII-response showed this vicarious facilitation effect only in the movement discrimination task at the strongest expression intensity. These findings are consistent with the notion that vicarious processes facilitate self-pain and may prime automatic nociceptive responses. However, this priming effect is influenced by top-down attentional processes. These results provide another case of dissociation between reflexive and perceptual processes, consistent with the involvement of partly separate brain networks in the regulation of cortical and lower-level nociceptive responses. Combined with previous results, these findings suggest that vicarious pain facilitation is an automatic process that may be diminished by top-down attentional processes directed at the meaning of the expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Khatibi
- Research Group on Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
| | - Etienne Vachon-Presseau
- Departement de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada; Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal (CRIUGM), Montréal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Martien Schrooten
- Research Group on Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Center for Health and Medical Psychology, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden
| | - Johan Vlaeyen
- Research Group on Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Pierre Rainville
- Departement de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Stomatology, Faculty of Dentistry, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada; Groupe de Recherche sur le Systeme Nerveux Central (GRSNC), Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
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