Approach-Avoidance Behavior in the Empathy for Pain Model as Measured by Posturography

Abstract

The interrelation between motor and emotional processes has been a recurrent question since several decades in the scientific literature. An interesting experimental technique to explore this question is posturography which assess the modulation of human postural control. In an emerging scientific field, this technique has been used to explore the reaction of the body in different emotional conditions. However, among available studies, some inconsistencies appear. In this brief report, we want to show how a widely used experimental model, i.e., empathy for pain, allowed in several study to provide comprehensive understanding elements on the postural correlates of socioemotional information processing. In particular, the role of mental simulation is discussed.

The alterations in event-related potential responses to pain empathy in breast cancer survivors treated with chemotherapy

“…Of course, pain empathy is not unique to mankind, which was also common in rodents, and further investigation found that pain empathy was related to the anterior cingulate cortex (Smith et al, 2021). Compared to animal empathy, our own pain empathy is influenced by all kinds of psychosocial factors and in turn became awfully complex (Mouras and Lelard, 2021).…”

Empathy bodyssence: temporal dynamics of sensorimotor and physiological responses and the subjective experience in synchrony with the other’s suffering

“…In the Reliefeel Phase, temporal attunement has also been revealed with the decrease of intensity of the bodily feeling experience and the decrease of postural sway and heart rate ( Lang et al, 1993 ; Lelard et al, 2014 , 2017 ; Mouras and Lelard, 2021 ). While some studies interpret the reduction in postural sway and heart rate after exposure to highly aversive film content, such as scenes depicting car accidents and dead bodies, as indicative of a freezing-like response ( Hagenaars et al, 2014 ), another proposal suggests that rapid deceleration in heart rate following a stressful situation allows a recovery state in the absence of imminent danger ( Bernston et al, 1993 ).…”

“…For instance, physiological and motor changes have been reported during the observation of others’ emotions ( Hein et al, 2011 ; Gea et al, 2014 ; Lelard et al, 2014 ; Mouras and Lelard, 2021 ). Another observation found that viewing faces in pain leads to increased amplitude of body sway in subjects and correlates with higher empathic subjective scores, suggesting that changes in postural control may be associated with approach and cooperative responses ( Gea et al, 2014 ; Lebert et al, 2020 ).…”

Estudio fenomenológico experimental de la empatía por dolor en adulto mayor sano

“…Un psicólogo supervisó la firma del consentimiento informado. A continuación, se implementó un protocolo experimental previamente usado en neurociencia afectiva (e. g., Bouman y Stins, 2018;Lelard et al, 2019;Mouras y Lelard, 2021;Martínez-Pernía et al, 2023b;Martínez-Pernía et al, 2020;Troncoso et al, en revisión). En este se pedía que cada participante se parara en una plataforma estabilométrica a un metro de distancia de una pantalla (40").…”