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Tan H, Zeng X, Ni J, Liang K, Xu C, Zhang Y, Wang J, Li Z, Yang J, Han C, Gao Y, Yu X, Han S, Meng F, Ma Y. Intracranial EEG signals disentangle multi-areal neural dynamics of vicarious pain perception. Nat Commun 2024; 15:5203. [PMID: 38890380 PMCID: PMC11189531 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49541-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2023] [Accepted: 06/07/2024] [Indexed: 06/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Empathy enables understanding and sharing of others' feelings. Human neuroimaging studies have identified critical brain regions supporting empathy for pain, including the anterior insula (AI), anterior cingulate (ACC), amygdala, and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). However, to date, the precise spatio-temporal profiles of empathic neural responses and inter-regional communications remain elusive. Here, using intracranial electroencephalography, we investigated electrophysiological signatures of vicarious pain perception. Others' pain perception induced early increases in high-gamma activity in IFG, beta power increases in ACC, but decreased beta power in AI and amygdala. Vicarious pain perception also altered the beta-band-coordinated coupling between ACC, AI, and amygdala, as well as increased modulation of IFG high-gamma amplitudes by beta phases of amygdala/AI/ACC. We identified a necessary combination of neural features for decoding vicarious pain perception. These spatio-temporally specific regional activities and inter-regional interactions within the empathy network suggest a neurodynamic model of human pain empathy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huixin Tan
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaoyu Zeng
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Jun Ni
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Kun Liang
- Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Cuiping Xu
- Department of Functional Neurosurgery, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Yanyang Zhang
- Department of Neurosurgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Jiaxin Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Zizhou Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Jiaxin Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Chunlei Han
- Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Yuan Gao
- Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Xinguang Yu
- Department of Neurosurgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Shihui Han
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Fangang Meng
- Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China.
| | - Yina Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China.
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Rütgen M, Lamm C. Dissecting shared pain representations to understand their behavioral and clinical relevance. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 163:105769. [PMID: 38879099 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105769] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2024] [Revised: 05/29/2024] [Accepted: 06/11/2024] [Indexed: 06/22/2024]
Abstract
Accounts of shared representations posit that the experience of pain and pain empathy rely on similar neural mechanisms. Experimental research employing novel analytical and methodological approaches has made significant advances in both the identification and targeted manipulation of such shared experiences and their neural underpinnings. This revealed that painful experiences can be shared on different representational levels, from pain-specific to domain-general features, such as negative affect and its regulation. In view of direct links between such representations and social behaviors such as prosocial behavior, conditions characterized by aberrant pain processing may come along with heavy impairments in the social domain, depending on the affected representational level. This has wide potential implications in light of the high prevalence of pain-related clinical conditions, their management, and the overuse of pain medication. In this review and opinion paper, we aim to chart the path toward a better understanding of the link between shared affect and prosocial behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markus Rütgen
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden.
| | - Claus Lamm
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
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Mu J, Wu L, Wang C, Dun W, Hong Z, Feng X, Zhang M, Liu J. Individual differences of white matter characteristic along the anterior insula-based fiber tract circuit for pain empathy in healthy women and women with primary dysmenorrhea. Neuroimage 2024; 293:120624. [PMID: 38657745 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120624] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2023] [Revised: 04/19/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Pain empathy, defined as the ability of one person to understand another person's pain, shows large individual variations. The anterior insula is the core region of the pain empathy network. However, the relationship between white matter (WM) properties of the fiber tracts connecting the anterior insula with other cortical regions and an individual's ability to modulate pain empathy remains largely unclear. In this study, we outline an automatic seed-based fiber streamline (sFS) analysis method and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to predict the levels of pain empathy in healthy women and women with primary dysmenorrhoea (PDM). Using the sFS method, the anterior insula-based fiber tract network was divided into five fiber cluster groups. In healthy women, interindividual differences in pain empathy were predicted only by the WM properties of the five fiber cluster groups, suggesting that interindividual differences in pain empathy may rely on the connectivity of the anterior insula-based fiber tract network. In women with PDM, pain empathy could be predicted by a single cluster group. The mean WM properties along the anterior insular-rostroventral area of the inferior parietal lobule further mediated the effect of pain on empathy in patients with PDM. Our results suggest that chronic periodic pain may lead to maladaptive plastic changes, which could further impair empathy by making women with PDM feel more pain when they see other people experiencing pain. Our study also addresses an important gap in the analysis of the microstructural characteristics of seed-based fiber tract network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junya Mu
- Department of Medical Imaging, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710061, PR China
| | - Leiming Wu
- Center for Brain Imaging, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an 710126, PR China; Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging, Ministry of Education, Xi'an 710126, PR China
| | - Chenxi Wang
- Center for Brain Imaging, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an 710126, PR China; Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging, Ministry of Education, Xi'an 710126, PR China
| | - Wanghuan Dun
- Department of Medical Imaging, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710061, PR China
| | - Zilong Hong
- Center for Brain Imaging, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an 710126, PR China; Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging, Ministry of Education, Xi'an 710126, PR China
| | - Xinyue Feng
- Center for Brain Imaging, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an 710126, PR China; Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging, Ministry of Education, Xi'an 710126, PR China
| | - Ming Zhang
- Department of Medical Imaging, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710061, PR China.
| | - Jixin Liu
- Department of Medical Imaging, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710061, PR China; Center for Brain Imaging, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an 710126, PR China; Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging, Ministry of Education, Xi'an 710126, PR China.
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Wu H, Dai W, Hong Z, Qin Y, Yang M, Wang B, Liao J. Higher-order sensorimotor circuit of the whole-brain functional network involved in pruritus regulation in atopic dermatitis. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol 2024; 38:873-882. [PMID: 38069553 DOI: 10.1111/jdv.19691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying pruritus regulation in Atopic dermatitis (AD). OBJECTIVE To investigate the functional changes of the resting-state whole brain network of AD participants and the mechanisms by which they were involved in pruritus regulation. METHOD Based on the functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 19 AD participants and 37 healthy controls (HC), a graph-theoretical measure of degree centrality (DC) conjoined with a voxel-level seed-based functional connectivity (FC) method was used to identify abnormal higher-order nodes and the functionally relevant circuit in AD participants compared to healthy controls (HC). RESULTS Of 64 participants screened, 19 AD participants (12M/7F, median [IQR] age, 27 [14] years) and 36 HCs (13M/23F, median [IQR] age, 20 [1] years) were enrolled. DC values of the left superior frontal gyrus (LSFG) increased in AD participants and exhibited a negative correlation with the SCORAD score (r = -0.561, p = 0.012) compared with HC. In the FC analysis with LSFG as the seed, FC values of several sensory and motor regions increased in AD participants, highly overlapping with the anatomical distribution of the inferior fronto-occipital fascicle (IFOF). AD participants with severe pruritus exhibited lower levels of DC (T = -2.316, p = 0.033) and FC between the LSFG and left insula (T = -2.203, p = 0.042) than those with mild-to- moderate pruritus. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE LSFG was involved in pruritus regulation in AD by forming a high-order sensorimotor circuit through the IFOF, a white matter fascicle that proved to provide multimodal integration in motor control and sensory information processing. These results offer more mechanism-guided treatment targets for severe pruritus in AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haishan Wu
- National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, China National Technology Institute on Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Wenyu Dai
- National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, China National Technology Institute on Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Zhaoyi Hong
- Department of Dermatology, Second Xiangya Hospital, Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenomics, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Yue Qin
- National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, China National Technology Institute on Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Min Yang
- National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, China National Technology Institute on Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Bolun Wang
- Scientific Research Program of Hunan Provincial Health Commission, Department of Radiology, Clinical Research Center for Medical Imaging in Hunan Province, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Jieyue Liao
- Department of Dermatology, Second Xiangya Hospital, Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenomics, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
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Mello M, Fusaro M, Aglioti SM. The neuroscience of human empathy for pleasure: protocol for a scoping review. Syst Rev 2024; 13:82. [PMID: 38431698 PMCID: PMC10908019 DOI: 10.1186/s13643-024-02481-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2023] [Accepted: 02/09/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The neuroscience of human empathy for pleasure and positive affect is an emergent, scarcely addressed topic. The main aim of this scoping review is to map the impact of this new research domain on the field of social and affective neuroscience. INTRODUCTION Most of the literature on empathy and affect sharing has hitherto focused on negative emotions, with a special focus on pain. However, understanding, sharing, and reacting to others' pleasures is an evolutionarily and socially important function. Our scoping review addresses this gap in the literature and tries to unify the available information under the empathy for pleasure umbrella. INCLUSION CRITERIA This scoping review is intended to cover studies on empathy for positive emotions, pleasant sensory outcomes, and other rewards in healthy individuals and neurological/neuropsychiatric/neurodevelopmental disorders populations. METHODS We will perform a systematic search in the Medline (PubMed), Scopus, and Web of Science (WoS) databases. Two authors will independently screen all titles, abstracts, and then full-text articles that meet the inclusion criteria. The year range of interest will be 2000-2022, and only journal articles published in English will be assessed. Data will be extracted and presented in tables and/or graphical representations to synthesize and describe the results. The extracted data will be reported in a comprehensive summary. RESULTS The final manuscript is intended for submission to an indexed journal in late 2023/beginning 2024. CONCLUSIONS To our knowledge, the present scoping review will be the first to address the variety and heterogeneity of available evidence on human empathy for pleasure. We ultimately aim at perusing the growing literature on this far-reaching field of study and informing future research. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION The neuroscience of human empathy for pleasure: Protocol for a scoping review. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/W7H6J . (December 27, 2022).
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Mello
- Sapienza University of Rome and CLN2S@Sapienza, Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia (IIT), Rome, Italy.
| | - Martina Fusaro
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
| | - Salvatore Maria Aglioti
- Sapienza University of Rome and CLN2S@Sapienza, Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia (IIT), Rome, Italy
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
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6
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Gerrans P. Pain suffering and the self. An active allostatic inference explanation. Neurosci Conscious 2024; 2024:niae002. [PMID: 38348334 PMCID: PMC10860504 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niae002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Revised: 01/06/2024] [Accepted: 01/16/2024] [Indexed: 02/15/2024] Open
Abstract
Distributed processing that gives rise to pain experience is anchored by a multidimensional self-model. I show how the phenomenon of pain asymbolia and other atypical pain-related conditions (Insensitivity to Pain, Chronic Pain, 'Social' Pain, Insensitivity to Pain, Chronic Pain, 'Social' Pain, empathy for pain and suffering) can be explained by this idea. It also explains the patterns of association and dissociation among neural correlates without importing strong modular assumptions. It treats pain processing as a species of allostatic active inference in which the mind co-ordinates its processing resources to optimize basic bodily functioning at different time scales. The self is inferred to be source and target of regulation in this process. The self-modelling account reconciles conflicting deaffectualization and depersonalization accounts of pain asymbolia by showing how depersonalization and pain asymbolia arise at different levels of hierarchical self modelling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip Gerrans
- Department of Philosophy, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
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7
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Mei S, Weiß M, Hein G, Han S. EEG evidence for racial ingroup bias in collective empathy for pain. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae019. [PMID: 38300214 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2023] [Revised: 12/18/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Previous research on racial ingroup bias in empathy for pain focused on neural responses to a single person's suffering. It is unclear whether empathy for simultaneously perceived multiple individuals' pain (denoted as collective empathy in this study) is also sensitive to perceived racial identities of empathy targets. We addressed this issue by recording electroencephalography from Chinese adults who responded to racial identities of 2 × 2 arrays of Asian or White faces in which 4 faces, 1 face, or no face showed painful expressions. Participants reported greater feelings of others' pain and their own unpleasantness when viewing 4 compared to 1 (or no) painful faces. Behavioral responses to racial identities of faces revealed decreased speeds of information acquisition when responding to the face arrays with 4 (vs. 1 or no) painful expressions of Asian (but not White) faces. Moreover, Asian compared to White face arrays with 4 (vs. 1 or no) painful expressions elicited a larger positive neural response at 160-190 ms (P2) at the frontal/central electrodes and enhanced alpha synchronizations at 288-1,000 ms at the central electrodes. Our findings provide evidence for racial ingroup biases in collective empathy for pain and unravel its relevant neural underpinnings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuting Mei
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, 52 Heidian Street, Beijing 100080, China
| | - Martin Weiß
- Translational Social Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Margarete-Höppel-Platz 1, Würzburg 97080, Germany
| | - Grit Hein
- Translational Social Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Margarete-Höppel-Platz 1, Würzburg 97080, Germany
| | - Shihui Han
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, 52 Heidian Street, Beijing 100080, China
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8
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Knyazev GG, Savostyanov AN, Bocharov AV, Saprigyn AE. Representational similarity analysis of self- versus other-processing: Effect of trait aggressiveness. Aggress Behav 2024; 50:e22125. [PMID: 38268387 DOI: 10.1002/ab.22125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 10/27/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2024]
Abstract
In this study, using the self/other adjective judgment task, we aimed to explore how people perceive themselves in comparison to various other people, including friends, strangers, and those they dislike. Next, using representational similarity analysis, we sought to elucidate how these perceptual similarities and differences are represented in brain activity and how aggressiveness is related to these representations. Behavioral ratings show that, on average, people tend to consider themselves more like their friends than neutral strangers, and least like people they dislike. This pattern of similarity is positively correlated with neural representation in social and cognitive circuits of the brain and negatively correlated with neural representation in emotional centers that may represent emotional arousal associated with various social objects. Aggressiveness seems to predispose a person to a pattern of behavior that is the opposite of the average pattern, that is, a tendency to think of oneself as less like one's friends and more like one's enemies. This corresponds to an increase in the similarity of the behavioral representation with the representation in the emotional centers and a decrease in its similarity with the representation in the social and cognitive centers. This can be seen as evidence that in individuals prone to aggression, behavior in the social environment may depend to a greater extent on the representation of social objects in the emotional rather than social and cognitive brain circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gennady G Knyazev
- Laboratory of Differential Psychophysiology, Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Alexander N Savostyanov
- Laboratory of Differential Psychophysiology, Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia
- Laboratory of Psychological Genetics, Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Andrey V Bocharov
- Laboratory of Differential Psychophysiology, Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Alexander E Saprigyn
- Laboratory of Differential Psychophysiology, Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia
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Plata-Bello J, Privato N, Modroño C, Pérez-Martín Y, Borges Á, González-Mora JL. Empathy Modulates the Activity of the Sensorimotor Mirror Neuron System during Pain Observation. Behav Sci (Basel) 2023; 13:947. [PMID: 37998694 PMCID: PMC10669321 DOI: 10.3390/bs13110947] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2023] [Revised: 11/12/2023] [Accepted: 11/13/2023] [Indexed: 11/25/2023] Open
Abstract
AIM The aim of this study is to analyze the brain activity patterns during the observation of painful expressions and to establish the relationship between this activity and the scores obtained on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). METHODS The study included twenty healthy, right-handed subjects (10 women). We conducted a task-based and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. The task involved observing pictures displaying painful expressions. We performed a region of interest (ROI) analysis focusing on the core regions of the sensorimotor mirror neuron system (MNS). Resting-state fMRI was utilized to assess the functional connectivity of the sensorimotor MNS regions with the rest of the cortex using a seed-to-voxel approach. Additionally, we conducted a regression analysis to examine the relationship between brain activity and scores from the IRI subtests. RESULTS Observing painful expressions led to increased activity in specific regions of the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes. The largest cluster of activation was observed in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL). However, the ROI analysis did not reveal any significant activity in the remaining core regions of the sensorimotor MNS. The regression analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between brain activity during the observation of pain and the "empathic concern" subtest scores of the IRI in both the cingulate gyri and bilateral IPL. Finally, we identified a positive relationship between the "empathic concern" subtest of the IRI and the functional connectivity (FC) of bilateral IPLs with the bilateral prefrontal cortex and the right IFG. CONCLUSION Observing expressions of pain triggers activation in the sensorimotor MNS, and this activation is influenced by the individual's level of empathy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julio Plata-Bello
- Department of Neurosurgery, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, S/C de Tenerife, 38320 La Laguna, Spain
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, University of La Laguna, 38320 La Laguna, Spain
| | - Nicole Privato
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, University of La Laguna, 38320 La Laguna, Spain
- Department of Neurology, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, S/C de Tenerife, 38320 La Laguna, Spain
| | - Cristián Modroño
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of La Laguna, 38320 La Laguna, Spain
| | - Yaiza Pérez-Martín
- Department of Neurology, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, S/C de Tenerife, 38320 La Laguna, Spain
| | - África Borges
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychobiology and Methodology, University of La Laguna, 38320 La Laguna, Spain
| | - José Luis González-Mora
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of La Laguna, 38320 La Laguna, Spain
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Flasbeck V, Matthiessen A, Alabowitz A, Rusu AC, Brüne M. Is your pain my pain? A study exploring the relation between pain sensitivity, pain thresholds and empathy for somatic and psychological pain. BRITISH JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY 2023; 62:748-761. [PMID: 37605326 DOI: 10.1111/bjc.12436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 08/06/2023] [Indexed: 08/23/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Research has shown that empathy for both somatic and psychological pain recruits affective components of the so-called pain matrix, a set of brain regions that is activated during the perception of somatic pain. In addition, the subjective evaluation of experimentally induced somatic pain is related to empathy for somatic pain. In contrast, it is unclear whether or not the subjective sensitivity to somatic pain impacts on empathy for psychological pain. METHODS In the present study, 55 healthy participants conducted a pain-pressure-test (PPT) and a cold-pressor test (CPT) in order to assess pain thresholds, pain tolerance and evaluation of pain during the task. They further conducted the social interaction empathy task (SIET), which investigates empathy for somatic as well as psychological pain. All participants completed the interpersonal-reactivity index (IRI) and the pain-sensitivity questionnaire (PSQ). RESULTS Participants who are in general more sensitive to somatic pain, as indicated by high-PSQ scores, showed higher empathy, that is, higher pain ratings, for both somatic and psychological painful situations observed in others as compared to those with low-PSQ scores. High-PSQ scores and high pain and unpleasantness ratings during the CPT were correlated with empathy for pain (both pain conditions), whereas pain thresholds (PPT) and pain tolerance thresholds (CPT) did not correlate with empathy. The IRI subscore 'personal distress' correlated with psychological pain ratings. CONCLUSIONS Thus, empathy for both somatic and psychological pain were related to the subjective evaluation of somatic pain and general pain sensitivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vera Flasbeck
- Division of Social Neuropsychiatry and Evolutionary Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Preventive Medicine, LWL University Hospital Bochum, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Annegret Matthiessen
- Division of Social Neuropsychiatry and Evolutionary Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Preventive Medicine, LWL University Hospital Bochum, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
- Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Faculty of Medicine, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Anne Alabowitz
- Division of Social Neuropsychiatry and Evolutionary Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Preventive Medicine, LWL University Hospital Bochum, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
- Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Faculty of Medicine, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Adina Carmen Rusu
- Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Faculty of Medicine, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Martin Brüne
- Division of Social Neuropsychiatry and Evolutionary Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Preventive Medicine, LWL University Hospital Bochum, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
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11
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Huo T, Shamay-Tsoory S, Han S. Creative mindset reduces racial ingroup bias in empathic neural responses. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:10558-10574. [PMID: 37615303 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Revised: 07/05/2023] [Accepted: 07/28/2023] [Indexed: 08/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Spontaneous racial categorization of other-race individuals provides a cognitive basis of racial ingroup biases in empathy and prosocial behavior. In two experiments, we investigated whether fostering a creativity mindset reduces racial ingroup biases in empathy and undermines spontaneous racial categorization of other-race faces. Before and after a creative mindset priming procedure that required the construction of novel objects using discreteness, we recorded electroencephalography signals to Asian and White faces with painful or neutral expressions from Chinese adults to assess neural activities underlying racial ingroup biases in empathy and spontaneous racial categorization of faces. We found that a frontal-central positive activity within 200 ms after face onset (P2) showed greater amplitudes to painful (vs. neutral) expressions of Asian compared with White faces and exhibited repetition suppression in response to White faces. These effects, however, were significantly reduced by creative mindset priming. Moreover, the creative mindset priming enhanced the P2 amplitudes to others' pain to a larger degree in participants who created more novel objects. The priming effects were not observed in control participants who copied objects constructed by others. Our findings suggest that creative mindsets may reduce racial ingroup biases in empathic neural responses by undermining spontaneous racial categorization of faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tengbin Huo
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100080, China
| | | | - Shihui Han
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100080, China
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12
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Borelli E, Benuzzi F, Ballotta D, Bandieri E, Luppi M, Cacciari C, Porro CA, Lui F. Words hurt: common and distinct neural substrates underlying nociceptive and semantic pain. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1234286. [PMID: 37829724 PMCID: PMC10565001 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1234286] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2023] [Accepted: 09/01/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Recent studies have shown that processing semantic pain, such as words associated with physical pain, modulates pain perception and enhances activity in regions of the pain matrix. A direct comparison between activations due to noxious stimulation and processing of words conveying physical pain may clarify whether and to what extent the neural substrates of nociceptive pain are shared by semantic pain. Pain is triggered also by experiences of social exclusion, rejection or loss of significant others (the so-called social pain), therefore words expressing social pain may modulate pain perception similarly to what happens with words associated with physical pain. This event-related fMRI study aims to compare the brain activity related to perceiving nociceptive pain and that emerging from processing semantic pain, i.e., words related to either physical or social pain, in order to identify common and distinct neural substrates. Methods Thirty-four healthy women underwent two fMRI sessions each. In the Semantic session, participants were presented with positive words, negative pain-unrelated words, physical pain-related words, and social pain-related words. In the Nociceptive session, participants received cutaneous mechanical stimulations that could be either painful or not. During both sessions, participants were asked to rate the unpleasantness of each stimulus. Linguistic stimuli were also rated in terms of valence, arousal, pain relatedness, and pain intensity, immediately after the Semantic session. Results In the Nociceptive session, the 'nociceptive stimuli' vs. 'non-nociceptive stimuli' contrast revealed extensive activations in SI, SII, insula, cingulate cortex, thalamus, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In the Semantic session, words associated with social pain, compared to negative pain-unrelated words, showed increased activity in most of the same areas, whereas words associated with physical pain, compared to negative pain-unrelated words, only activated the left supramarginal gyrus and partly the postcentral gyrus. Discussion Our results confirm that semantic pain partly shares the neural substrates of nociceptive pain. Specifically, social pain-related words activate a wide network of regions, mostly overlapping with those pertaining to the affective-motivational aspects of nociception, whereas physical pain-related words overlap with a small cluster including regions related to the sensory-discriminative aspects of nociception. However, most regions of overlap are differentially activated in different conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleonora Borelli
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
| | - Francesca Benuzzi
- Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
| | - Daniela Ballotta
- Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
| | - Elena Bandieri
- Oncology and Palliative Care Units, Civil Hospital Carpi, USL, Carpi, Italy
| | - Mario Luppi
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
- Hematology Unit and Chair, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria di Modena, Modena, Italy
| | - Cristina Cacciari
- Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
| | - Carlo Adolfo Porro
- Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
| | - Fausta Lui
- Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
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13
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Petereit P, Weiblen R, Perry A, Krämer UM. Effects of social presence on behavioral, neural, and physiological aspects of empathy for pain. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:9954-9970. [PMID: 37462059 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad257] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2023] [Revised: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 06/26/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023] Open
Abstract
In mediated interactions (e.g. video calls), less information is available about the other. To investigate how this affects our empathy for one another, we conducted an electroencephalogram study, in which 30 human participants observed 1 of 5 targets undergoing painful electric stimulation, once in a direct interaction and once in a live, video-mediated interaction. We found that observers were as accurate in judging others' pain and showed as much affective empathy via video as in a direct encounter. While mu suppression, a common neural marker of empathy, was not sensitive to others' pain, theta responses to others' pain as well as skin conductance coupling between participants were reduced in the video-mediated condition. We conclude that physical proximity with its rich social cues is important for nuanced physiological resonance with the other's experience. More studies are warranted to confirm these results and to understand their behavioral significance for remote social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pauline Petereit
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany
- Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM), University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany
| | - Ronja Weiblen
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany
- Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM), University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany
| | - Anat Perry
- Psychology Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, 91905 Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Ulrike M Krämer
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany
- Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM), University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany
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14
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Cormie MA, Kaya B, Hadjis GE, Mouseli P, Moayedi M. Insula-cingulate structural and functional connectivity: an ultra-high field MRI study. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:9787-9801. [PMID: 37429832 PMCID: PMC10656949 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad244] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2022] [Revised: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 06/17/2023] [Indexed: 07/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The insula and the cingulate are key brain regions with many heterogenous functions. Both regions are consistently shown to play integral roles in the processing of affective, cognitive, and interoceptive stimuli. The anterior insula (aINS) and the anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC) are two key hubs of the salience network (SN). Beyond the aINS and aMCC, previous 3 Tesla (T) magnetic resonance imaging studies have suggested both structural connectivity (SC) and functional connectivity (FC) between other insular and cingulate subregions. Here, we investigate the SC and FC between insula and cingulate subregions using ultra-high field 7T diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). DTI revealed strong SC between posterior INS (pINS) and posterior MCC (pMCC), and rs-fMRI revealed strong FC between the aINS and aMCC that was not supported by SC, indicating the likelihood of a mediating structure. Finally, the insular pole had the strongest SC to all cingulate subregions, with a slight preference for the pMCC, indicative of a potential relay node of the insula. Together these finding shed new light on the understanding of insula-cingulate functioning, both within the SN and other cortical processes, through a lens of its SC and FC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew A Cormie
- Centre for Multimodal Sensorimotor and Pain Research, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Batu Kaya
- Centre for Multimodal Sensorimotor and Pain Research, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Georgia E Hadjis
- Centre for Multimodal Sensorimotor and Pain Research, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Pedram Mouseli
- Centre for Multimodal Sensorimotor and Pain Research, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Massieh Moayedi
- Centre for Multimodal Sensorimotor and Pain Research, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Dentistry, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada
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15
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Newton-Fenner A, Hewitt D, Henderson J, Roberts H, Mari T, Gu Y, Gorelkina O, Giesbrecht T, Fallon N, Roberts C, Stancak A. Economic value in the Brain: A meta-analysis of willingness-to-pay using the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auction. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0286969. [PMID: 37428744 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286969] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2022] [Accepted: 05/29/2023] [Indexed: 07/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Forming and comparing subjective values (SVs) of choice options is a critical stage of decision-making. Previous studies have highlighted a complex network of brain regions involved in this process by utilising a diverse range of tasks and stimuli, varying in economic, hedonic and sensory qualities. However, the heterogeneity of tasks and sensory modalities may systematically confound the set of regions mediating the SVs of goods. To identify and delineate the core brain valuation system involved in processing SV, we utilised the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) auction, an incentivised demand-revealing mechanism which quantifies SV through the economic metric of willingness-to-pay (WTP). A coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis analysed twenty-four fMRI studies employing a BDM task (731 participants; 190 foci). Using an additional contrast analysis, we also investigated whether this encoding of SV would be invariant to the concurrency of auction task and fMRI recordings. A fail-safe number analysis was conducted to explore potential publication bias. WTP positively correlated with fMRI-BOLD activations in the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex with a sub-cluster extending into anterior cingulate cortex, bilateral ventral striatum, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, right inferior frontal gyrus, and right anterior insula. Contrast analysis identified preferential engagement of the mentalizing-related structures in response to concurrent scanning. Together, our findings offer succinct empirical support for the core structures participating in the formation of SV, separate from the hedonic aspects of reward and evaluated in terms of WTP using BDM, and show the selective involvement of inhibition-related brain structures during active valuation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice Newton-Fenner
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Institute of Risk and Uncertainty, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Danielle Hewitt
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Jessica Henderson
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Hannah Roberts
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Tyler Mari
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Yiquan Gu
- Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
| | - Olga Gorelkina
- Management School, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Timo Giesbrecht
- Unilever, Research and Development, Port Sunlight, United Kingdom
| | - Nicolas Fallon
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Carl Roberts
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Andrej Stancak
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Institute of Risk and Uncertainty, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
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16
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Ellingsen DM, Isenburg K, Jung C, Lee J, Gerber J, Mawla I, Sclocco R, Grahl A, Anzolin A, Edwards RR, Kelley JM, Kirsch I, Kaptchuk TJ, Napadow V. Brain-to-brain mechanisms underlying pain empathy and social modulation of pain in the patient-clinician interaction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2212910120. [PMID: 37339198 PMCID: PMC10293846 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2212910120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2022] [Accepted: 04/25/2023] [Indexed: 06/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Social interactions such as the patient-clinician encounter can influence pain, but the underlying dynamic interbrain processes are unclear. Here, we investigated the dynamic brain processes supporting social modulation of pain by assessing simultaneous brain activity (fMRI hyperscanning) from chronic pain patients and clinicians during video-based live interaction. Patients received painful and nonpainful pressure stimuli either with a supportive clinician present (Dyadic) or in isolation (Solo). In half of the dyads, clinicians performed a clinical consultation and intake with the patient prior to hyperscanning (Clinical Interaction), which increased self-reported therapeutic alliance. For the other half, patient-clinician hyperscanning was completed without prior clinical interaction (No Interaction). Patients reported lower pain intensity in the Dyadic, relative to the Solo, condition. In Clinical Interaction dyads relative to No Interaction, patients evaluated their clinicians as better able to understand their pain, and clinicians were more accurate when estimating patients' pain levels. In Clinical Interaction dyads, compared to No Interaction, patients showed stronger activation of the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC and vlPFC) and primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory areas (Dyadic-Solo contrast), and clinicians showed increased dynamic dlPFC concordance with patients' S2 activity during pain. Furthermore, the strength of S2-dlPFC concordance was positively correlated with self-reported therapeutic alliance. These findings support that empathy and supportive care can reduce pain intensity and shed light on the brain processes underpinning social modulation of pain in patient-clinician interactions. Our findings further suggest that clinicians' dlPFC concordance with patients' somatosensory processing during pain can be boosted by increasing therapeutic alliance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dan-Mikael Ellingsen
- Department of Physics and Computational Radiology, Division of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo0372, Norway
- Department of Psychology, Pedagogy and Law, School of Health Sciences, Kristiania University College, Oslo0107, Norway
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massa, chusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
| | - Kylie Isenburg
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massa, chusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
| | - Changjin Jung
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massa, chusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
- KM Research Science Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon461-24, Republic of Korea
| | - Jeungchan Lee
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massa, chusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
| | - Jessica Gerber
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massa, chusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
| | - Ishtiaq Mawla
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massa, chusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
| | - Roberta Sclocco
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massa, chusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
- Department of Radiology, Logan University, Chesterfield, MO63017
| | - Arvina Grahl
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massa, chusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
| | - Alessandra Anzolin
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massa, chusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
| | - Robert R. Edwards
- Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA02115
| | - John M. Kelley
- School of Social Sciences, Communication, and Humanities, Endicott College, Beverley, MA02115
- Program in Placebo Studies & Therapeutic Encounter, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02215
| | - Irving Kirsch
- Program in Placebo Studies & Therapeutic Encounter, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02215
| | - Ted J. Kaptchuk
- Program in Placebo Studies & Therapeutic Encounter, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02215
| | - Vitaly Napadow
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massa, chusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA02129
- Department of Radiology, Logan University, Chesterfield, MO63017
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17
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Dugré JR, Potvin S. Neural bases of frustration-aggression theory: A multi-domain meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies. J Affect Disord 2023; 331:64-76. [PMID: 36924847 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.03.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2022] [Revised: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 03/06/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Early evidence suggests that unexpected non-reward may increase the risk for aggressive behaviors. Despite the growing interest in understanding brain functions that may be implicated in aggressive behaviors, the neural processes underlying such frustrative events remain largely unknown. Furthermore, meta-analytic results have produced discrepant results, potentially due to substantial differences in the definition of anger/aggression constructs. METHODS Therefore, we conducted a coordinate-based meta-analysis, using the activation likelihood estimation algorithm, on neuroimaging studies examining reward omission and retaliatory behaviors in healthy subjects. Conjunction analyses were further examined to discover overlapping brain activations across these meta-analytic maps. RESULTS Frustrative non-reward deactivated the orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum and posterior cingulate cortex, whereas increased activations were observed in midcingulo-insular regions. Retaliatory behaviors recruited the left fronto-insular and anterior midcingulate cortices, the dorsal caudate and the primary somatosensory cortex. Conjunction analyses revealed that both strongly activated midcingulo-insular regions. LIMITATIONS Spatial overlap between neural correlates of frustration and retaliatory behaviors was conducted using a conjunction analysis. Therefore, neurobiological markers underlying the temporal sequence of the frustration-aggression theory should be interpreted with caution. CONCLUSIONS Nonetheless, our results underscore the role of anterior midcingulate/pre-supplementary motor area and fronto-insular cortex in both frustration and retaliatory behaviors. A neurobiological framework for understanding frustration-based impulsive aggression is provided.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jules R Dugré
- Centre de recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal, Montréal, Canada; Department of Psychiatry and Addiction, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montréal, Canada.
| | - Stéphane Potvin
- Centre de recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal, Montréal, Canada; Department of Psychiatry and Addiction, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montréal, Canada.
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18
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Pluta A, Mazurek J, Wojciechowski J, Wolak T, Soral W, Bilewicz M. Exposure to hate speech deteriorates neurocognitive mechanisms of the ability to understand others' pain. Sci Rep 2023; 13:4127. [PMID: 36914701 PMCID: PMC10011534 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31146-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 03/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The widespread ubiquity of hate speech affects people's attitudes and behavior. Exposure to hate speech can lead to prejudice, dehumanization, and lack of empathy towards members of outgroups. However, the impact of exposure to hate speech on empathy and propensity to attribute mental states to others has never been directly tested empirically. In this fMRI study, we examine the effects of exposure to hate speech on neural mechanisms of empathy towards ingroup (Poles) versus outgroup members (Arabs). Thirty healthy young adults were randomly assigned to 2 groups: hateful and neutral. During the fMRI study, they were initially exposed to hateful or neutral comments and subsequently to narratives depicting Poles and Arabs in pain. Using whole-brain and region of interest analysis, we showed that exposure to derogatory language about migrants attenuates the brain response to someone else's pain in the right temporal parietal junction (rTPJ), irrespective of group membership (Poles or Arabs). Given that rTPJ is associated with processes relevant to perspective-taking, its reduced activity might be related to a decreased propensity to take the psychological perspective of others. This finding suggests that hate speech affects human functioning beyond intergroup relations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agnieszka Pluta
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Stawki 5/7 Street, 00-183, Warszawa, Poland. .,Bioimaging Research Center, World Hearing Center of Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Warszawa, Poland.
| | - Joanna Mazurek
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Stawki 5/7 Street, 00-183, Warszawa, Poland
| | - Jakub Wojciechowski
- Bioimaging Research Center, World Hearing Center of Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Warszawa, Poland.,Laboratory of Emotions Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Tomasz Wolak
- Bioimaging Research Center, World Hearing Center of Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Warszawa, Poland
| | - Wiktor Soral
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Stawki 5/7 Street, 00-183, Warszawa, Poland
| | - Michał Bilewicz
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Stawki 5/7 Street, 00-183, Warszawa, Poland
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19
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Pang C, Li W, Zhou Y, Gao T, Han S. Are women more empathetic than men? Questionnaire and EEG estimations of sex/gender differences in empathic ability. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2023; 18:7046083. [PMID: 36807483 PMCID: PMC9976760 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsad008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2022] [Revised: 12/28/2022] [Accepted: 02/18/2023] [Indexed: 02/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The debate regarding whether women are more empathetic than men has broad scientific, social and clinical implications. However, previous independent questionnaires and brain imaging studies that tested different samples reported inconsistent results regarding sex/gender differences in empathic ability. We conducted three studies to investigate sex/gender differences in empathic ability using large-sample questionnaires and electroencephalography (EEG) measures. We showed that the estimation of empathic ability using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index questionnaire showed higher rating scores in women than in men in all studies. However, our EEG measures of empathy, indexed by both phase-locked and non-phased-locked neural responses to others' painful (vs neutral) facial expressions, support a null hypothesis of the sex/gender difference in empathic ability. In addition, we showed evidence that priming social expectations of women and men's ability to share and care about others' feelings eliminated the sex/gender difference in questionnaire measures of empathic ability. Our large-sample EEG results challenge the notion of women's superiority in empathy that is built based on subjective questionnaire measures that are sensitive to social desirability. Our findings indicate that whether the notion of women's superiority in empathic ability reflects a biological/social difference between women and men or a gender-role stereotype remains an open question.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chenyu Pang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100080, China
| | - Wenxin Li
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100080, China
| | - Yuqing Zhou
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100080, China
| | - Tianyu Gao
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100080, China
| | - Shihui Han
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100080, China
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20
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Klugah-Brown B, Wang P, Jiang Y, Becker B, Hu P, Uddin LQ, Biswal B. Structural-functional connectivity mapping of the insular cortex: a combined data-driven and meta-analytic topic mapping. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:1726-1738. [PMID: 35511500 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2022] [Revised: 04/06/2022] [Accepted: 04/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
In this study, we examined structural and functional profiles of the insular cortex and mapped associations with well-described functional networks throughout the brain using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) data. We used a data-driven method to independently estimate the structural-functional connectivity of the insular cortex. Data were obtained from the Human Connectome Project comprising 108 adult participants. Overall, we observed moderate to high associations between the structural and functional mapping scores of 3 different insular subregions: the posterior insula (associated with the sensorimotor network: RSFC, DTI = 50% and 72%, respectively), dorsal anterior insula (associated with ventral attention: RSFC, DTI = 83% and 83%, respectively), and ventral anterior insula (associated with the frontoparietal: RSFC, DTI = 42% and 89%, respectively). Further analyses utilized meta-analytic decoding maps to demonstrate specific cognitive and affective as well as gene expression profiles of the 3 subregions reflecting the core properties of the insular cortex. In summary, given the central role of the insular in the human brain, our results revealing correspondence between DTI and RSFC mappings provide a complementary approach and insight for clinical researchers to identify dysfunctional brain organization in various neurological disorders associated with insular pathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Klugah-Brown
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, 611731 Chengdu, China
| | - Pan Wang
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, 611731 Chengdu, China
| | - Yuan Jiang
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, 611731 Chengdu, China
| | - Benjamin Becker
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, 611731 Chengdu, China
| | - Peng Hu
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, 611731 Chengdu, China
| | - Lucina Q Uddin
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Newark, NJ 07102, United States
| | - Bharat Biswal
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, 611731 Chengdu, China.,Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
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21
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Vieira JB, Olsson A. Neural defensive circuits underlie helping under threat in humans. eLife 2022; 11:78162. [PMID: 36281636 PMCID: PMC9596154 DOI: 10.7554/elife.78162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 09/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Empathy for others’ distress has long been considered the driving force of helping. However, when deciding to help others in danger, one must consider not only their distress, but also the risk to oneself. Whereas the role of self-defense in helping has been overlooked in human research, studies in other animals indicate defensive responses are necessary for the protection of conspecifics. In this pre-registered study (N=49), we demonstrate that human defensive neural circuits are implicated in helping others under threat. Participants underwent fMRI scanning while deciding whether to help another participant avoid aversive electrical shocks, at the risk of also being shocked. We found that higher engagement of neural circuits that coordinate fast escape from self-directed danger (including the insula, PAG, and ACC) facilitated decisions to help others. Importantly, using representational similarity analysis, we found that the strength with which the amygdala and insula uniquely represented the threat to oneself (and not the other’s distress) predicted helping. Our findings indicate that in humans, as other mammals, defensive mechanisms play a greater role in helping behavior than previously understood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joana B Vieira
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet
| | - Andreas Olsson
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet
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22
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Smith JL, Allen JW, Fleischer CC, Harper DE. Topology of pain networks in patients with temporomandibular disorder and pain-free controls with and without concurrent experimental pain: A pilot study. FRONTIERS IN PAIN RESEARCH (LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 3:966398. [PMID: 36324873 PMCID: PMC9619074 DOI: 10.3389/fpain.2022.966398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) involve chronic pain in the masticatory muscles and jaw joints, but the mechanisms underlying the pain are heterogenous and vary across individuals. In some cases, structural, functional, and metabolic changes in the brain may underlie the condition. In the present study, we evaluated the functional connectivity between 86 regions of interest (ROIs), which were chosen based on previously reported neuroimaging studies of pain and differences in brain morphology identified in an initial surface-based morphometry analysis. Our main objectives were to investigate the topology of the network formed by these ROIs and how it differs between individuals with TMD and chronic pain (n = 16) and pain-free control participants (n = 12). In addition to a true resting state functional connectivity scan, we also measured functional connectivity during a 6-min application of a noxious cuff stimulus applied to the left leg. Our principal finding is individuals with TMD exhibit more suprathreshold correlations (higher nodal degree) among all ROIs but fewer "hub" nodes (i.e., decreased betweenness centrality) across conditions and across all pain pathways. These results suggest is this pain-related network of nodes may be "over-wired" in individuals with TMD and chronic pain compared to controls, both at rest and during experimental pain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy L. Smith
- Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Jason W. Allen
- Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States,Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Candace C. Fleischer
- Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States,Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Daniel E. Harper
- Department of Anesthesiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States,Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States,Correspondence: Daniel E. Harper
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23
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Zhao Y, Zhang L, Rütgen M, Sladky R, Lamm C. Effective connectivity reveals distinctive patterns in response to others' genuine affective experience of disgust. Neuroimage 2022; 259:119404. [PMID: 35750254 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Revised: 06/19/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Empathy is significantly influenced by the identification of others' emotions. In a recent study, we have found increased activation in the anterior insular cortex (aIns) that could be attributed to affect sharing rather than perceptual saliency, when seeing another person genuinely experiencing pain as opposed to merely acting to be in pain. In that prior study, effective connectivity between aIns and the right supramarginal gyrus (rSMG) was revealed to represent what another person really feels. In the present study, we used a similar paradigm to investigate the corresponding neural signatures in the domain of empathy for disgust - with participants seeing others genuinely sniffing unpleasant odors as compared to pretending to smell something disgusting (in fact the disgust expressions in both conditions were acted for reasons of experimental control). Consistent with the previous findings on pain, we found stronger activations in aIns associated with affect sharing for genuine disgust (inferred) compared with pretended disgust. However, instead of rSMG we found engagement of the olfactory cortex. Using dynamic causal modeling (DCM), we estimated the neural dynamics of aIns and the olfactory cortex between the genuine and pretended conditions. This revealed an increased excitatory modulatory effect for genuine disgust compared to pretended disgust. For genuine disgust only, brain-to-behavior regression analyses highlighted a link between the observed modulatory effect and a few empathic traits. Altogether, the current findings complement and expand our previous work, by showing that perceptual saliency alone does not explain responses in the insular cortex. Moreover, it reveals that different brain networks are implicated in a modality-specific way when sharing the affective experiences associated with pain vs. disgust.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yili Zhao
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, Vienna 1010, Austria
| | - Lei Zhang
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, Vienna 1010, Austria
| | - Markus Rütgen
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, Vienna 1010, Austria; Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, Vienna 1010, Austria
| | - Ronald Sladky
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, Vienna 1010, Austria
| | - Claus Lamm
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, Vienna 1010, Austria; Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, Vienna 1010, Austria.
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24
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Li X, Lou W, Zhang W, Tong RKY, Hu L, Peng W. Ongoing first-hand pain facilitates somatosensory resonance but inhibits affective sharing in empathy for pain. Neuroimage 2022; 263:119599. [PMID: 36049698 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2022] [Revised: 08/05/2022] [Accepted: 08/28/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Alterations of empathy for others' pain among patients with chronic pain remained inconsistent. Here, applying a capsaicin-based ongoing pain model on healthy participants, this study investigated how ongoing first-hand pain influences empathic reactions to vicarious pain stimuli. Healthy participants were randomly treated with topical capsaicin cream (capsaicin group) or hand cream (control group) on the left forearm. Video clips showing limbs in painful and non-painful situations were used to induce empathic responses. The capsaicin group showed greater empathic neural responses in the right primary somatosensory cortex (S1) than the control group but smaller responses in the left anterior insula (AI) accompanied with smaller empathic pain-intensity ratings. Notably, the intensity of ongoing pain negatively correlated with empathy-related neural responses in the left AI. Inter-subject phase synchronization analysis was used to assess stimulus-dependent dynamic functional connectivity within or between brain regions engaged in pain empathy. The capsaicin group showed greater empathy-related neural synchronization within S1 and between S1 and AI, but less synchronization within AI and between AI and MCC. Behaviorally, the differential inter-subject pain-intensity rating alignment between painful and non-painful videos was more positive for the capsaicin group than for the control group, and this effect was partially mediated by the inter-subject neural synchronization between S1 and AI. These results suggest that ongoing first-hand pain facilitates neural activation and synchronization within brain regions associated with empathy-related somatosensory resonance at the cost of inhibiting activation and synchronization within brain regions engaged in empathy-related affective sharing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyun Li
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Wutao Lou
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Wenyun Zhang
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Raymond Kai-Yu Tong
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Li Hu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Weiwei Peng
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
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25
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Xie F, Guan C, Gu Y, You Y, Yao F. Effects of the Prolong Life With Nine Turn Method (Yan Nian Jiu Zhuan) Qigong on Brain Functional Changes in Patients With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Terms of Fatigue and Quality of Life. Front Neurol 2022; 13:866424. [PMID: 35911899 PMCID: PMC9326262 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2022.866424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2022] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BackgroundChronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is characterized by persistent fatigue, which often leads to physical and psychological damage. The Prolong Life with Nine Turn method (PLWNT) Qigong is considered as one of the complementary treatments for improving symptoms in patients with CFS. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the effects of PLWNT intervention on the subjects with CFS.MethodsThirty four CFS patients were randomly divided into PLWNT group and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) group. Both groups were taught by a highly qualified professor at the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine once a week and were supervised online during the remaining 6 days at home, over 12 consecutive weeks. We calculated the regional rs-fMRI index amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) for all subjects. To study the changes of the brain network, we used the brain regions with significant differences in ALFF as the regions of interest for whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) analysis. The Multi-dimensional Fatigue Inventory 20 (MFI-20) and Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36) were used for clinical symptom assessment to explore the possible correlation between the rs-fMRI indicators and clinical variations.ResultsThe ALFF values of the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), and left median cingulate gyrus (DCG) were increased, whereas those of the left middle occipital gyrus (OG), right middle OG and left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) were decreased in PLWNT group. The FC values between the DCG and middle temporal gyrus (MTG), and those between the left OG and the right OG were enhanced. In addition, the SF-36 were positively with the left OG (r = 0.524), SFG (r = 0.517), and DCG (r = 0.533), MFI-20 were negatively with the SFG (r = −0.542) and DCG (r = −0.578). These results were all corrected by FWE (voxel level p < 0.001, cluster level p < 0.05).ConclusionCFS patients have abnormal regional spontaneous neuronal activity and abnormal functional connections between regions after PLWNT intervention. PLWNT can relieve the fatigue symptoms of CFS patients and improve their quality of life. The study was registered in the American Clinical Trial Registry (12/04/2018). Registration Number is NCT03496961.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fangfang Xie
- Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
- School of Acupuncture and Massage, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Chong Guan
- School of Acupuncture and Massage, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Yuanjia Gu
- School of Acupuncture and Massage, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Yanli You
- Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, ChangHai Hospital, Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China
- *Correspondence: Yanli You
| | - Fei Yao
- Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
- School of Acupuncture and Massage, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
- Fei Yao
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26
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Kamalian A, Khodadadifar T, Saberi A, Masoudi M, Camilleri JA, Eickhoff CR, Zarei M, Pasquini L, Laird AR, Fox PT, Eickhoff SB, Tahmasian M. Convergent regional brain abnormalities in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia: A neuroimaging meta-analysis of 73 studies. ALZHEIMER'S & DEMENTIA (AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS) 2022; 14:e12318. [PMID: 35664889 PMCID: PMC9148620 DOI: 10.1002/dad2.12318] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2021] [Revised: 03/13/2022] [Accepted: 04/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Introduction Numerous studies have reported brain alterations in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). However, they pointed to inconsistent findings. Methods We used a meta‐analytic approach to identify the convergent structural and functional brain abnormalities in bvFTD. Following current best‐practice neuroimaging meta‐analysis guidelines, we searched PubMed and Embase databases and performed reference tracking. Then, the coordinates of group comparisons between bvFTD and controls from 73 studies were extracted and tested for convergence using activation likelihood estimation. Results We identified convergent abnormalities in the anterior cingulate cortices, anterior insula, amygdala, paracingulate, striatum, and hippocampus. Task‐based and resting‐state functional connectivity pointed to the networks that are connected to the obtained consistent regions. Functional decoding analyses suggested associated dysfunction of emotional processing, interoception, reward processing, higher‐order cognitive functions, and olfactory and gustatory perceptions in bvFTD. Discussion Our findings highlighted the key role of the salience network and subcortical regions in the pathophysiology of bvFTD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aida Kamalian
- School of Medicine Tehran University of Medical Sciences Tehran Iran
| | - Tina Khodadadifar
- School of Cognitive Sciences Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences Tehran Iran
| | - Amin Saberi
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine Brain and Behavior (INM-7) Research Center Jülich Jülich Germany.,Institute for Systems Neuroscience Medical Faculty Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf Düsseldorf Germany
| | - Maryam Masoudi
- School of Medicine Tehran University of Medical Sciences Tehran Iran
| | - Julia A Camilleri
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine Brain and Behavior (INM-7) Research Center Jülich Jülich Germany.,Institute for Systems Neuroscience Medical Faculty Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf Düsseldorf Germany
| | - Claudia R Eickhoff
- Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf Düsseldorf Germany.,Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine Research Center Jülich Structural and Functional Organisation of the Brain (INM-1) Jülich Germany
| | - Mojtaba Zarei
- Institute of Medical Science and Technology Shahid Beheshti University Tehran Iran
| | - Lorenzo Pasquini
- Department of Neurology Memory and Aging Center University of California-San Francisco San Francisco California USA
| | - Angela R Laird
- Department of Physics Florida International University Miami Florida USA
| | - Peter T Fox
- Research Imaging Institute University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio Texas USA.,South Texas Veterans Health Care System San Antonio Texas USA
| | - Simon B Eickhoff
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine Brain and Behavior (INM-7) Research Center Jülich Jülich Germany.,Institute for Systems Neuroscience Medical Faculty Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf Düsseldorf Germany
| | - Masoud Tahmasian
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine Brain and Behavior (INM-7) Research Center Jülich Jülich Germany.,Institute for Systems Neuroscience Medical Faculty Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf Düsseldorf Germany
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27
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Kim KI, Jung WH, Woo CW, Kim H. Neural signatures of individual variability in context-dependent perception of ambiguous facial expression. Neuroimage 2022; 258:119355. [PMID: 35660000 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119355] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2021] [Revised: 05/28/2022] [Accepted: 05/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
How do we incorporate contextual information to infer others' emotional state? Here we employed a naturalistic context-dependent facial expression estimation task where participants estimated pleasantness levels of others' ambiguous expression faces when sniffing different contextual cues (e.g., urine, fish, water, and rose). Based on their pleasantness rating data, we placed participants on a context-dependency continuum and mapped the individual variability in the context-dependency onto the neural representation using a representational similarity analysis. We found that the individual variability in the context-dependency of facial expression estimation correlated with the activity level of the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) and the amygdala and was also decoded by the neural representation of the ventral anterior insula (vAI). A dynamic causal modeling revealed that those with higher context-dependency exhibited a greater degree of the modulation from vAI to the pgACC. These findings provide novel insights into the neural circuitry associated with the individual variability in context-dependent facial expression estimation and the first empirical evidence for individual variability in the predictive accounts of affective states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kun Il Kim
- School of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Wi Hoon Jung
- Department of Psychology, Gachon University, Seongnam, Republic of Korea
| | - Choong-Wan Woo
- Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea; Department of Intelligent Precision Healthcare Convergence, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
| | - Hackjin Kim
- School of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
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28
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Yoder KJ, Harenski CL, Kiehl KA, Decety J. Psychopathic traits modulate functional connectivity during pain perception and perspective-taking in female inmates. Neuroimage Clin 2022; 34:102984. [PMID: 35276604 PMCID: PMC8907686 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.102984] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2021] [Revised: 03/03/2022] [Accepted: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
PCL-R scores are associated with altered functional connectivity in female inmates. PCL-R Factor 1 and Factor 2 subscores predicted opposite shifts in connectivity. Functional connectivity in the salience network is altered during pain perception. Connectivity in the social cognition network is altered during perspective-taking.
The ability to share and understand the distress of others is critical for successful social interactions and is a fundamental building block of morality. Psychopathy is a personality disorder that includes lack of empathy and concern for others. In the present study, functional MRI was used to examine neural responses and functional connectivity associated with empathy and affective perspective-taking in female inmates (N = 109) with various levels of psychopathic traits, as measured with Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Participants viewed hands and feet in painful or non-painful situations while adopting a first person or third person perspective. All participants demonstrated robust neural responses in anterior insula (aINS), anterior cingulate (ACC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and supplementary motor area (SMA) when viewing pain, both during imagine-self and imagine-other blocks. Psychopathy shifted the functional connectivity seeded in core nodes of the salience and social cognition networks. Perceiving stimuli depicting somatic pain led to decreased functional coupling from right temporoparietal junction to superior temporal sulcus, which correlated with scores on PCL-R Factor 1 (Affective/Interpersonal). In contrast, connectivity from right insula to precuneus increased with Factor 2 (Lifestyle/Antisocial) scores. When adopting a third-person perspective, psychopathic traits modulated connectivity from the social cognition network, but not the salience network, with Factor 1 scores associated with increased connectivity to sensorimotor cortex and temporal pole, while Factor 2 scores were associated with decreased connectivity with ACC/SMA and inferior frontal gyrus. Overall, these results demonstrate that psychopathic traits in incarcerated females are associated with atypical functional connectivity within the salience network during pain-empathy processing and within the social cognition network during affective perspective-taking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keith J Yoder
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
| | - Carla L Harenski
- The Mind Research Network and Lovelace Biomedical, Albuquerque, NM, United States; Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, United States
| | - Kent A Kiehl
- The Mind Research Network and Lovelace Biomedical, Albuquerque, NM, United States; Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, United States
| | - Jean Decety
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
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29
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Morawetz C, Berboth S, Kohn N, Jackson PL, Jauniaux J. Reappraisal and empathic perspective-taking - More alike than meets the eyes. Neuroimage 2022; 255:119194. [PMID: 35413444 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2021] [Revised: 03/02/2022] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Emotion regulation and empathy represent highly intertwined psychological processes sharing common conceptual ground. Despite the wealth of research in these fields, the joint and distinct functional nature and topological features of these constructs have not yet been investigated using the same experimental approach. This study investigated the common and distinct neural correlates of emotion regulation and empathy using a meta-analytic approach. The regions that were jointly activated were then characterized using meta-analytic connectivity modeling and functional decoding of metadata terms. The results revealed convergent activity within the ventrolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex as well as temporal regions. The functional decoding analysis demonstrated that emotion regulation and empathy were related to highly similar executive and internally oriented processes. This synthesis underlining strong functional and neuronal correspondence between emotion regulation and empathy could (i) facilitate greater integration of these two separate lines of literature, (ii) accelerate progress toward elucidating the neural mechanisms that support social cognition, and (iii) push forward the development of a common theoretical framework for these psychological processes essential to human social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Stella Berboth
- Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Nils Kohn
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Netherlands
| | | | - Josiane Jauniaux
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sherbrooke University, Sherbrooke, Canada
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30
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Puiu AA, Votinov M, Habel U, Konrad K. Testosterone administration does not alter the brain activity supporting cognitive and affective empathy. COMPREHENSIVE PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY 2022; 10:100134. [PMID: 35755204 PMCID: PMC9216345 DOI: 10.1016/j.cpnec.2022.100134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2021] [Revised: 03/29/2022] [Accepted: 03/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Although there is evidence that testosterone has deteriorating effects on cognitive and affective empathy, whether testosterone administration influences both routes to understanding others has not yet been simultaneously investigated. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) pharmacological study using a within-subjects, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover design to examine the effects of 100 mg transdermal testosterone administration on brain activation during a task that examines affective and cognitive empathy simultaneously in a sample of 23 healthy right-handed adult men. Relative to placebo, testosterone did not alter affective or cognitive empathy functional brain networks. Instead, the task yielded activation in the canonical networks associated with both types of empathy. Affective empathy yielded activation in the inferior and middle frontal gyri, inferior temporal gyri, and the cingulate cortex. Cognitive empathy was associated with activation of the temporoparietal junction, medial prefrontal cortex, middle and inferior temporal gyri, and temporal pole. Behaviourally, testosterone administration decreased error rates and increased participants’ confidence in their responses regardless of response accuracy. Independent of testosterone administration, participants reported higher affective responses during emotionally negative scenarios. Even though our results provide further evidence that testosterone administration in healthy men does not alter brain activity underlying cognitive and affective empathy, testosterone administration does influence the empathic concern and hence socio-cognitive processes. The reproducibility and variability of the current and previous findings should nevertheless be addressed in upcoming studies. High testosterone concentrations are associated with deficient social cognition such as higher aggression and lower empathy. We investigated whether 100mg testosterone administration alters the brain activity supporting empathy in 23 healthy men. Results showed that neither affective nor cognitive empathy brain network activity was altered by testosterone. Independent of testosterone, participants responded with more affective empathy and concern during negative scenarios. Our results show that acute testosterone administration in healthy men does not alter most socio-cognitive processes.
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31
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Tei S, Tanicha M, Itahashi T, Aoki YY, Ohta H, Qian C, Hashimoto RI, Nakamura M, Takahashi H, Kato N, Fujino J. Decision Flexibilities in Autism Spectrum Disorder: An fMRI Study of Moral Dilemmas. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2022; 17:904-911. [PMID: 35333369 PMCID: PMC9527470 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2021] [Revised: 02/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
People make flexible decisions across a wide range of contexts to resolve social or moral conflicts. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently report difficulties in such behaviors, which hinders the flexibility in changing strategies during daily activities or adjustment of perspective during communication. However, the underlying mechanisms of this issue are insufficiently understood. This study aimed to investigate decision flexibility in ASD using a functional magnetic resonance imaging task that involved recognizing and resolving two types of moral dilemmas: cost–benefit analysis (CBA) and mitigating inevitable misconducts (MIM). The CBA session assessed the participants’ pitting of result-oriented outcomes against distressful harmful actions, whereas the MIM session assessed their pitting of the extenuation of a criminal sentence against a sympathetic situation of defendants suffering from violence or disease. The behavioral outcome in CBA-related flexibility was significantly lower in the ASD group compared to that of the typical development group. In the corresponding CBA contrast, activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus was lower in the ASD group. Meanwhile, in the MIM-related flexibility, there were no significant group differences in behavioral outcome or brain activity. Our findings add to our understanding of flexible decision-making in ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shisei Tei
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kita-karasuyama, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.,Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 54 Shogoin-Kawaracho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan.,Institute of Applied Brain Sciences, Waseda University, 2-579-15 Mikajima, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan.,School of Human and Social Sciences, Tokyo International University, 2509 Matoba, Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan
| | - Mizuki Tanicha
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Takashi Itahashi
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kita-karasuyama, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yuta Y Aoki
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kita-karasuyama, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Haruhisa Ohta
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kita-karasuyama, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.,Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kita-karasuyama, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Chenyu Qian
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Ryu-Ichiro Hashimoto
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kita-karasuyama, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.,Department of Language Sciences, Graduate School of Humanities, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-Osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Motoaki Nakamura
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kita-karasuyama, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.,Kanagawa Psychiatric Center, 2-5-1 Serigaya, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Hidehiko Takahashi
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kita-karasuyama, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.,Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 54 Shogoin-Kawaracho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Nobumasa Kato
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kita-karasuyama, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Junya Fujino
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kita-karasuyama, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.,Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 54 Shogoin-Kawaracho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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32
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Ren Q, Yang Y, Wo Y, Lu X, Hu L. Different priming effects of empathy on neural processing associated with firsthand pain and nonpain perception. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2021; 1509:184-202. [PMID: 34877680 DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2021] [Revised: 09/30/2021] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The shared-representation model of empathy is still debated. One of the major questions is whether empathy-eliciting stimuli depicting others' pain selectively activate the representations of self-pain. To address this issue, we assessed the priming effects of empathy-eliciting pictures on firsthand pain and nonpain perception, as well as its associated neural processing. In Experiment 1, when compared with nonpainful pictures depicting individuals' body parts with no injury, participants primed by painful pictures showing individuals' body parts with injury reported higher ratings for perceived intensity, unpleasantness, and salience of nociceptive and auditory stimuli, but they only exhibited increased N2 amplitude in response to nociceptive stimuli. In Experiment 2, the results from another group of participants replicated the observations of Experiment 1 and validated the findings in the non-nociceptive somatosensory modality. Importantly, participants' concern ratings for priming pictures predicted their unpleasantness ratings for subsequent nociceptive stimuli, while participants' attention ratings predicted their unpleasantness ratings for subsequent auditory and tactile stimuli. This finding implies that empathy for pain might influence pain and nonpain perception via different psychological mechanisms. In summary, our findings highlight the existence of pain-selective representations in empathy for pain and contribute to a better understanding of the shared-representation model of empathy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiaoyue Ren
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,General and Experimental Psychology Unit, Department of Psychology, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Ye Yang
- Centre for Mental Health Research in School of Management, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
| | - Ye Wo
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xuejing Lu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Li Hu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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33
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Ferraro S, Klugah-Brown B, Tench CR, Yao S, Nigri A, Demichelis G, Pinardi C, Bruzzone MG, Becker B. Dysregulated anterior insula reactivity as robust functional biomarker for chronic pain-Meta-analytic evidence from neuroimaging studies. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 43:998-1010. [PMID: 34734458 PMCID: PMC8764475 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2021] [Revised: 10/10/2021] [Accepted: 10/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Neurobiological pain models propose that chronic pain is accompanied by neurofunctional changes that mediate pain processing dysfunctions. In contrast, meta‐analyses of neuroimaging studies in chronic pain conditions have not revealed convergent evidence for robust alterations during experimental pain induction. Against this background, the present neuroimaging meta‐analysis combined three different meta‐analytic approaches with stringent study selection criteria for case–control functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments during acute pain processing with a focus on chronic pain disorders. Convergent neurofunctional dysregulations in chronic pain patients were observed in the left anterior insula cortex. Seed‐based resting‐state functional connectivity based on a large publicly available dataset combined with a meta‐analytic task‐based approach identified the anterior insular region as a key node of an extended bilateral insula‐fronto‐cingular network, resembling the salience network. Moreover, the meta‐analytic decoding showed that this region presents a high probability to be specifically activated during pain‐related processes, although we cannot exclude an involvement in autonomic processes. Together, the present findings indicate that dysregulated left anterior insular activity represents a robust neurofunctional maladaptation and potential treatment target in chronic pain disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefania Ferraro
- The Clinical Hospital of the Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.,Neuroradiology Department, Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy
| | - Benjamin Klugah-Brown
- The Clinical Hospital of the Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Christopher R Tench
- Division of Clinical Neurosciences, Clinical Neurology, University of Nottingham, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK
| | - Shuxia Yao
- The Clinical Hospital of the Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Anna Nigri
- Neuroradiology Department, Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy
| | - Greta Demichelis
- Neuroradiology Department, Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy
| | - Chiara Pinardi
- Neuroradiology Department, Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy
| | - Maria Grazia Bruzzone
- Neuroradiology Department, Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy
| | - Benjamin Becker
- The Clinical Hospital of the Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
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34
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Better living through understanding the insula: Why subregions can make all the difference. Neuropharmacology 2021; 198:108765. [PMID: 34461066 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2021.108765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2021] [Revised: 07/19/2021] [Accepted: 08/23/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Insula function is considered critical for many motivated behaviors, with proposed functions ranging from attention, behavioral control, emotional regulation, goal-directed and aversion-resistant responding. Further, the insula is implicated in many neuropsychiatric conditions including substance abuse. More recently, multiple insula subregions have been distinguished based on anatomy, connectivity, and functional contributions. Generally, posterior insula is thought to encode more somatosensory inputs, which integrate with limbic/emotional information in middle insula, that in turn integrate with cognitive processes in anterior insula. Together, these regions provide rapid interoceptive information about the current or predicted situation, facilitating autonomic recruitment and quick, flexible action. Here, we seek to create a robust foundation from which to understand potential subregion differences, and provide direction for future studies. We address subregion differences across humans and rodents, so that the latter's mechanistic interventions can best mesh with clinical relevance of human conditions. We first consider the insula's suggested roles in humans, then compare subregional studies, and finally describe rodent work. One primary goal is to encourage precision in describing insula subregions, since imprecision (e.g. including both posterior and anterior studies when describing insula work) does a disservice to a larger understanding of insula contributions. Additionally, we note that specific task details can greatly impact recruitment of various subregions, requiring care and nuance in design and interpretation of studies. Nonetheless, the central ethological importance of the insula makes continued research to uncover mechanistic, mood, and behavioral contributions of paramount importance and interest. This article is part of the special Issue on 'Neurocircuitry Modulating Drug and Alcohol Abuse'.
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35
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Skversky-Blocq Y, Haaker J, Shechner T. Watch and Learn: Vicarious Threat Learning across Human Development. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11101345. [PMID: 34679409 PMCID: PMC8533719 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11101345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2021] [Revised: 10/04/2021] [Accepted: 10/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Vicarious threat learning is an important pathway in learning about safety and danger in the environment and is therefore critical for survival. It involves learning by observing another person's (the demonstrator) fearful responses to threat and begins as early as infancy. The review discusses the literature on vicarious threat learning and infers how this learning pathway may evolve over human development. We begin by discussing the methods currently being used to study observational threat learning in the laboratory. Next, we focus on the social factors influencing vicarious threat learning; this is followed by a review of vicarious threat learning among children and adolescents. Finally, we examine the neural mechanisms underpinning vicarious threat learning across human development. To conclude, we encourage future research directions that will help elucidate how vicarious threat learning emerges and how it relates to the development of normative fear and pathological anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yael Skversky-Blocq
- School of Psychological Sciences and the Integrated Brain and Behavior Research Center, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel;
| | - Jan Haaker
- Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20251 Hamburg, Germany;
| | - Tomer Shechner
- School of Psychological Sciences and the Integrated Brain and Behavior Research Center, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel;
- Correspondence:
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36
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Zhao Y, Zhang L, Rütgen M, Sladky R, Lamm C. Neural dynamics between anterior insular cortex and right supramarginal gyrus dissociate genuine affect sharing from perceptual saliency of pretended pain. eLife 2021; 10:e69994. [PMID: 34409940 PMCID: PMC8443248 DOI: 10.7554/elife.69994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2021] [Accepted: 08/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Empathy for pain engages both shared affective responses and self-other distinction. In this study, we addressed the highly debated question of whether neural responses previously linked to affect sharing could result from the perception of salient affective displays. Moreover, we investigated how the brain network involved in affect sharing and self-other distinction underpinned our response to a pain that is either perceived as genuine or pretended (while in fact both were acted for reasons of experimental control). We found stronger activations in regions associated with affect sharing (anterior insula [aIns] and anterior mid-cingulate cortex) as well as with affective self-other distinction (right supramarginal gyrus [rSMG]), in participants watching video clips of genuine vs. pretended facial expressions of pain. Using dynamic causal modeling, we then assessed the neural dynamics between the right aIns and rSMG in these two conditions. This revealed a reduced inhibitory effect on the aIns to rSMG connection for genuine pain compared to pretended pain. For genuine pain only, brain-to-behavior regression analyses highlighted a linkage between this inhibitory effect on the one hand, and pain ratings as well as empathic traits on the other. These findings imply that if the pain of others is genuine and thus calls for an appropriate empathic response, neural responses in the aIns indeed seem related to affect sharing and self-other distinction is engaged to avoid empathic over-arousal. In contrast, if others merely pretend to be in pain, the perceptual salience of their painful expression results in neural responses that are down-regulated to avoid inappropriate affect sharing and social support.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yili Zhao
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of ViennaViennaAustria
| | - Lei Zhang
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of ViennaViennaAustria
| | - Markus Rütgen
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of ViennaViennaAustria
- Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of ViennaViennaAustria
| | - Ronald Sladky
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of ViennaViennaAustria
| | - Claus Lamm
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of ViennaViennaAustria
- Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of ViennaViennaAustria
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37
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Arioli M, Cattaneo Z, Ricciardi E, Canessa N. Overlapping and specific neural correlates for empathizing, affective mentalizing, and cognitive mentalizing: A coordinate-based meta-analytic study. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42:4777-4804. [PMID: 34322943 PMCID: PMC8410528 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2021] [Revised: 05/10/2021] [Accepted: 06/15/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
While the discussion on the foundations of social understanding mainly revolves around the notions of empathy, affective mentalizing, and cognitive mentalizing, their degree of overlap versus specificity is still unclear. We took a meta-analytic approach to unveil the neural bases of cognitive mentalizing, affective mentalizing, and empathy, both in healthy individuals and pathological conditions characterized by social deficits such as schizophrenia and autism. We observed partially overlapping networks for cognitive and affective mentalizing in the medial prefrontal, posterior cingulate, and lateral temporal cortex, while empathy mainly engaged fronto-insular, somatosensory, and anterior cingulate cortex. Adjacent process-specific regions in the posterior lateral temporal, ventrolateral, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex might underpin a transition from abstract representations of cognitive mental states detached from sensory facets to emotionally-charged representations of affective mental states. Altered mentalizing-related activity involved distinct sectors of the posterior lateral temporal cortex in schizophrenia and autism, while only the latter group displayed abnormal empathy related activity in the amygdala. These data might inform the design of rehabilitative treatments for social cognitive deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Arioli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Zaira Cattaneo
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.,IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | | | - Nicola Canessa
- ICoN center, Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS, Pavia, Italy.,Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of Pavia Institute, Pavia, Italy
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38
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Rhoads SA, Cutler J, Marsh AA. A Feature-Based Network Analysis and fMRI Meta-Analysis Reveal Three Distinct Types of Prosocial Decisions. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:1214-1233. [PMID: 34160604 PMCID: PMC8717062 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2020] [Revised: 04/26/2021] [Accepted: 06/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Tasks that measure correlates of prosocial decision-making share one common feature: agents can make choices that increase the welfare of a beneficiary. However, prosocial decisions vary widely as a function of other task features. The diverse ways that prosociality is defined and the heterogeneity of prosocial decisions have created challenges for interpreting findings across studies and identifying their neural correlates. To overcome these challenges, we aimed to organize the prosocial decision-making task space of neuroimaging studies. We conducted a systematic search for studies in which participants made decisions to increase the welfare of others during functional magnetic resonance imaging. We identified shared and distinct features of these tasks and employed an unsupervised graph-based approach to assess how various forms of prosocial decision-making are related in terms of their low-level components (e.g. task features like potential cost to the agent or potential for reciprocity). Analyses uncovered three clusters of prosocial decisions, which we labeled as cooperation, equity and altruism. This feature-based representation of the task structure was supported by results of a neuroimaging meta-analysis that each type of prosocial decisions recruited diverging neural systems. Results clarify some of the existing heterogeneity in how prosociality is conceptualized and generate insight for future research and task paradigm development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shawn A Rhoads
- Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Jo Cutler
- Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Abigail A Marsh
- Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA
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39
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Hartmann H, Riva F, Rütgen M, Lamm C. Placebo Analgesia Does Not Reduce Empathy for Naturalistic Depictions of Others' Pain in a Somatosensory Specific Way. Cereb Cortex Commun 2021; 2:tgab039. [PMID: 34296184 PMCID: PMC8276832 DOI: 10.1093/texcom/tgab039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2021] [Revised: 05/18/2021] [Accepted: 05/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The shared representations account postulates that sharing another's pain recruits underlying brain functions also engaged during first-hand pain. Critically, direct causal evidence for this was mainly shown for affective pain processing, while the contribution of somatosensory processes to empathy remains controversial. This controversy may be explained, however, by experimental paradigms that did not direct attention towards a specific body part, or that did not employ naturalistic depictions of others' pain. In this preregistered functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we aimed to test whether causal manipulation of first-hand pain affects empathy for naturalistic depictions of pain in a somatosensory-matched manner. Forty-five participants underwent a placebo analgesia induction in their right hand and observed pictures of other people's right and left hands in pain. We found neither behavioral nor neural evidence for somatosensory-specific modulation of pain empathy. However, exploratory analyses revealed a general effect of the placebo on empathy, and higher brain activity in bilateral anterior insula when viewing others' right hands in pain (i.e., corresponding to one's own placebo hand). These results refine our knowledge regarding the neural mechanisms of pain empathy, and imply that the sharing of somatosensory representations seems to play less of a causal role than the one of affective representations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helena Hartmann
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - Federica Riva
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - Markus Rütgen
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - Claus Lamm
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
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40
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Yoder KJ, Harenski C, Kiehl KA, Decety J. Neural responses to morally laden interactions in female inmates with psychopathy. Neuroimage Clin 2021; 30:102645. [PMID: 33838544 PMCID: PMC8045040 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102645] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2020] [Revised: 02/24/2021] [Accepted: 03/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Much of social cognition requires making inferences about the mental and emotional states of others. Moreover, understanding the emotions of others is an important foundation for moral decision-making. Psychopathy is associated with both aberrant emotional understanding and atypical hemodynamic responses when viewing and evaluating morally laden social interactions. In the present functional MRI study, female inmates (N = 107) were asked to evaluate the likely emotional state of either the recipient or the initiator of harmful or helpful interactions. Psychopathy was assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). PCL-R scores were not associated with differences in confidence or accuracy ratings. However, psychopathy scores were significantly related to increased hemodynamic response in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex when viewing harmful interactions and decreased functional connectivity from right amygdala to inferior parietal cortex and insula, and from temporal parietal junction to dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Overall, this work indicates that in females, psychopathy is associated with normal behavioral accuracy and confidence but alterations in neural network activity during moral decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keith J Yoder
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
| | - Carla Harenski
- The Mind Research Network and Lovelace Biomedical, Albuquerque, NM, USA; Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Kent A Kiehl
- The Mind Research Network and Lovelace Biomedical, Albuquerque, NM, USA; Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Jean Decety
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Psychiatry, and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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41
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Wang P, Zhu M, Mo S, Li X, Wang J. The effect of somatosensory alpha transcranial alternating current stimulation on pain empathy is trait empathy and gender dependent. CNS Neurosci Ther 2021; 27:687-693. [PMID: 33739605 PMCID: PMC8111491 DOI: 10.1111/cns.13631] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2020] [Revised: 02/02/2021] [Accepted: 02/03/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Pain empathy enables a person to experience and understand other's pain state by observing others in pain condition. Such prosocial ability is deficient in many psychopathological disorders. Somatosensory alpha suppression is considered as neural correlates of pain empathy and is hypothesized as a target for enhancement of pain empathy. Researches demonstrated that alpha suppression could be enhanced by transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at alpha frequency non‐invasively. Aims We applied alpha tACS over the primary somatosensory cortex of healthy subjects to investigate whether alpha tACS is able to enhance the pain empathy performance. Results The results showed that there was no difference of pain empathy performance between alpha tACS and sham tACS either when tACS was applied during the task or before task. While in the alpha tACS group, the pain empathy performance was positively correlated with empathic concern of male subjects, the sub‐component of personal trait empathy. Conclusions Alpha tACS cannot alter the empathy performance overall, but the modulation effect of alpha tACS on pain empathy is dependent on the gender and trait empathy of subjects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peipei Wang
- Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Minjia Zhu
- Department of Orthodontics, School of Stomatology, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Shaohua Mo
- Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaoli Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Jing Wang
- Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
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42
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Ribeiro da Costa C, Soares JM, Oliveira-Silva P, Sampaio A, Coutinho JF. Interplay Between the Salience and the Default Mode Network in a Social-Cognitive Task Toward a Close Other. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:718400. [PMID: 35197871 PMCID: PMC8859259 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.718400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Social cognition relies on two main subsystems to construct the understanding of others, which are sustained by different social brain networks. One of these social networks is the default mode network (DMN) associated with the socio-cognitive subsystem (i.e., mentalizing), and the other is the salience network (SN) associated with the socio-affective route (i.e., empathy). The DMN and the SN are well-known resting state networks that seem to constitute a baseline for the performance of social tasks. We aimed to investigate both networks' functional connectivity (FC) pattern in the transition from resting state to social task performance. A sample of 38 participants involved in a monogamous romantic relationship completed a questionnaire of dyadic empathy and underwent an fMRI protocol that included a resting state acquisition followed by a task in which subjects watched emotional videos of their romantic partner and elaborated on their partner's (Other condition) or on their own experience (Self condition). Independent component and ROI-to-ROI correlation analysis were used to assess alterations in task-independent (Rest condition) and task-dependent (Self and Other conditions) FC. We found that the spatial FC maps of the DMN and SN evidenced the traditional regions associated with these networks in the three conditions. Anterior and posterior DMN regions exhibited increased FC during the social task performance compared to resting state. The Other condition revealed a more limited SN's connectivity in comparison to the Self and Rest conditions. The results revealed an interplay between the main nodes of the DMN and the core regions of the SN, particularly evident in the Self and Other conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cátia Ribeiro da Costa
- Psychological Neuroscience Lab, CIPsi - Psychology Research Center, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Jose M Soares
- Life and Health Sciences Research Institute, School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | | | - Adriana Sampaio
- Psychological Neuroscience Lab, CIPsi - Psychology Research Center, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Joana F Coutinho
- Psychological Neuroscience Lab, CIPsi - Psychology Research Center, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
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Zhao Y, Rütgen M, Zhang L, Lamm C. Pharmacological fMRI provides evidence for opioidergic modulation of discrimination of facial pain expressions. Psychophysiology 2020; 58:e13717. [PMID: 33140886 PMCID: PMC7816233 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13717] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2020] [Revised: 09/03/2020] [Accepted: 10/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The endogenous opioid system is strongly involved in the modulation of pain. However, the potential role of this system in perceiving painful facial expressions from others has not been sufficiently explored as of yet. To elucidate the contribution of the opioid system to the perception of painful facial expressions, we conducted a double‐blind, within‐subjects pharmacological functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, in which 42 participants engaged in an emotion discrimination task (pain vs. disgust expressions) in two experimental sessions, receiving either the opioid receptor antagonist naltrexone or an inert substance (placebo). On the behavioral level, participants less frequently judged an expression as pain under naltrexone as compared to placebo. On the neural level, parametric modulation of activation in the (putative) right fusiform face area (FFA), which was correlated with increased pain intensity, was higher under naltrexone than placebo. Regression analyses revealed that brain activity in the right FFA significantly predicted behavioral performance in disambiguating pain from disgust, both under naltrexone and placebo. These findings suggest that reducing opioid system activity decreased participants' sensitivity for facial expressions of pain, and that this was linked to possibly compensatory engagement of processes related to visual perception, rather than to higher level affective processes, and pain regulation. The behavioral and neural findings of this psychopharmacological fMRI study shed light on a causal role of the opioid system in the discrimination of painful facial expressions, paving the way for further exploration of clinical implications in the domains of pain diagnosis and treatment, on the one hand, and future research on the relationship between basic socio‐perceptual processing and empathy, on the other.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yili Zhao
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Markus Rütgen
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.,Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Lei Zhang
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.,Neuropsychopharmacology and Biopsychology Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Claus Lamm
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.,Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.,Neuropsychopharmacology and Biopsychology Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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Travassos C, Sayal A, Direito B, Castelhano J, Castelo-Branco M. Volitional Modulation of the Left DLPFC Neural Activity Based on a Pain Empathy Paradigm-A Potential Novel Therapeutic Target for Pain. Front Neurol 2020; 11:714. [PMID: 32793103 PMCID: PMC7394699 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2020.00714] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2020] [Accepted: 06/10/2020] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
The ability to perceive and feel another person' pain as if it were one's own pain, e.g., pain empathy, is related to brain activity in the "pain-matrix" network. A non-core region of this network in Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) has been suggested as a modulator of the attentional-cognitive dimensions of pain processing in the context of pain empathy. We conducted a neurofeedback experiment using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI-NF) to investigate the association between activity in the left DLPFC (our neurofeedback target area) and the perspective assumed by the participant ("first-person"/"Self" or "third-person"/"Other" perspective of a pain-inducing stimulus), based on a customized pain empathy task. Our main goals were to assess the participants' ability to volitionally modulate activity in their own DLPFC through an imagery task of pain empathy and to investigate into which extent this ability depends on feedback. Our results demonstrate participants' ability to significantly modulate brain activity of the neurofeedback target area for the "first-person"/"Self" and "third-person"/"Other" perspectives. Results of both perspectives show that the participants were able to modulate (with statistical significance) the activity already in the first run of the session, in spite of being naïve to the task and even in the absence of feedback information. Moreover, they improved modulation throughout the session, particularly in the "Self" perspective. These results provide new insights on the role of DLPFC in pain and pain empathy mechanisms and validate the proposed protocol, paving the way for future interventional studies in clinical populations with empathic deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolina Travassos
- Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences Applied to Health (ICNAS), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- Siemens Healthineers, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Alexandre Sayal
- Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences Applied to Health (ICNAS), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- Siemens Healthineers, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Bruno Direito
- Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences Applied to Health (ICNAS), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
| | - João Castelhano
- Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences Applied to Health (ICNAS), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Miguel Castelo-Branco
- Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences Applied to Health (ICNAS), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
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