Freezing or escaping? Opposite modulations of empathic reactivity to the pain of others

Avenanti, Alessio; Minio-Paluello, Ilaria; Sforza, Anna; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2008.10.004

Cited by 79 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The impact of vicarious pain on motor movement seems to engage a complex inhibitory and facilitatory network. Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex inhibited the motor evoked potential of the hand while a participant observed a needle entering a congruent hand (same hand that is stimulated) and facilitated the MEP when entering the opposite hand (contralateral to the stimulated hand) (Avenanti et al, 2005;Avenanti et al, 2009b). Together, these studies revealed that pain observation can modulate pain-related responses that might be driven by different mechanisms involving the spinal cord (Vachon-Presseau et al, 2011), the cortical motor system (Avenanti et al, 2005;Costantini et al, 2008) and the cingulate cortex (Morrison et al, 2007a).…”

Section: Shared and Unique Activations To Sensory And Emotive-communimentioning

confidence: 94%

Neural processing of sensory and emotional-communicative information associated with the perception of vicarious pain

et al. 2012

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The specific neural processes underlying vicarious pain perception are not fully understood. In this functional imaging study, 20 participants viewed pain-evoking or neutral images displaying either sensory or emotional-communicative information. The pain images displayed nociceptive agents applied to the hand or the foot (sensory information) or facial expressions of pain (emotional-communicative information) and were matched with their neutral counterparts. Combining pain-evoking and neutral images showed that body limbs elicited greater activity in sensory motor regions, whereas midline frontal and parietal cortices and the amygdala responded more strongly to faces. The pain-evoking images elicited greater activity than their neutral counterparts in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and the bilateral extrastriate body area. However, greater pain-related activity was observed in the rostral IPL when images depicted a hand or foot compared to a facial expression of pain, suggesting a more specific involvement in the coding of somato-motor information. Posterior probability maps enabling Bayesian inferences further showed that the anterior IFG (BA 45 and 47) was the only region showing no intrinsic probability of activation by the neutral images, consistent with a role in the extraction of the meaning of pain-related visual cues. Finally, inter-individual empathy traits correlated with responses in the supracallosal mid/anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula when pain-evoking images of body limbs or facial expressions were presented, suggesting that these regions regulated the observer's affective-motivational response independent from the channels from which vicarious pain is perceived.

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Section: Shared and Unique Activations To Sensory And Emotive-communimentioning

confidence: 94%

Neural processing of sensory and emotional-communicative information associated with the perception of vicarious pain

et al. 2012

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“…The current findings pertain to a subsequent and unique phase of the study, designed to investigate the impact of parental attention toward/away from child pain upon parental emotion regulation and pain control behaviour during the child's second performance of the CPT. Participants were recruited from a sample of parents and school children (grades [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] who had consented to be recontacted following participation in a questionnaire study two years earlier (N = 164 child-parent dyads) [see 17]. Exclusion criteria for this study were: (1) child recurrent or chronic pain, (2) developmental delay, and (3) insufficient knowledge of the Dutch language.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Self-report and physiological data suggest that anticipating or observing another person's pain elicits emotional distress [8,20,32,41,86] and prioritizes behaviour to control the sufferer's pain [36,41]. This dynamic is evident in parent-child dyads, where parental distress when anticipating/observing their child's pain motivates behaviors to restrict the child's pain exposure [18,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion regulatory function of parent attention to child pain and associated implications for parental pain control behaviour

Vervoort

Trost

Sütterlin

et al. 2014

Pain

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We investigated the function of parental attention to child pain in regulating parental distress and pain control behaviour when observing their child performing a painful (cold pressor) task (CPT); we also studied the moderating role of parental state anxiety. Participants were 62 schoolchildren and one of their parents. Parental attention towards or away from child pain (ie, attend to pain vs avoid pain) was experimentally manipulated during a viewing task pairing unfamiliar children's neutral and pain faces. Before and after the viewing task, parental distress regulation was assessed by heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). In a subsequent phase, parents observed their own child perform a CPT task, allowing assessment of parental pain control behaviour (indexed by latency to stop their child's CPT performance) and parental distress, which was assessed via self-report before and after observation of child CPT performance. Eye tracking during the viewing task and self-reported attention to own child's pain confirmed successful attention manipulation. Further, findings indicated that the effect of attentional strategy on parental emotion regulation (indexed by HR, self-report) and pain control behaviour depended on parents' state anxiety. Specifically, whereas low anxious parents reported more distress and demonstrated more pain control behaviour in the Attend to Pain condition, high anxious parents reported more distress and showed more pain control behaviour in the Avoid Pain condition. This inverse pattern was likewise apparent in physiological distress indices (HR) in response to the initial viewing task. Theoretical/clinical implications and further research directions are discussed

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“…Avenanti and Aglioti (2006) demonstrated that not only the affective nodes in the pain network are concerned with empathy for pain, but also the sensomotoric side (Avenanti and Aglioti 2006). Avenanti et al (2009a, b) demonstrated that an onlooker to a needle penetration of a models hand leads to diminished cortical excitability specific for the muscle and hand observed to be penetrated. In contrast, observing a needle penetration in one other’s hand leads to a generalized corticospinal excitability of the opposite hand, leading to a possible freezing response (Avenanti et al 2009a, b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Avenanti et al (2009a, b) demonstrated that an onlooker to a needle penetration of a models hand leads to diminished cortical excitability specific for the muscle and hand observed to be penetrated. In contrast, observing a needle penetration in one other’s hand leads to a generalized corticospinal excitability of the opposite hand, leading to a possible freezing response (Avenanti et al 2009a, b). However, the participants in these studies were not active nor any action was required.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in spontaneous overt motor execution immediately after observing others’ painful action: two pilot studies

et al. 2018

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Research has demonstrated that motor control is directly influenced by observation of others’ action, stimulating the mirror neuron system. In addition, there is evidence that both emotion and empathy after observing a painful stimulus affects motor cortical excitability and reaction times. Aim of the present two pilot studies is a) to test for significant influence of observing other’s painful bending of the trunk on execution of the same activity in a self-directed bending action (study 1) and to compare these results with a bending action according to a strict bending protocol (study 2). In addition to study 1, differences between Low Back Pain (LBP) patients versus healthy subjects are tested. Video footage of a (1) neutral, (2) painful, and (3) happy bending action was presented in random order. Changes in flexion–relaxation phenomenon (FRP) of back muscles were studied directly after watching the videos with surface EMG, in study 1 during a self-directed bending action in LBP patients and healthy subjects, in study 2 according to a strict bending protocol. FRP ratios were calculated by a custom-made analysis scheme tested for sufficient reliability prior to both studies. Evoked emotions were measured with an Emotional Questionnaire after each video. A Mixed Model ANOVA was used to test for the effect video and the difference between LBP and healthy subjects on the FRP-rs. Differences in evoked emotion will be tested with a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. In study 1, 24 healthy controls and 16 LBP patients FRP-rs were significantly influenced after observing a painful video in all subjects versus a happy and neutral video (p = 0.00). No differences were present between LBP and healthy controls. All subjects experienced more fear after observation of the painful video (p 0.05). In study 2, 6 healthy subjects followed the strict FRP bending protocol for three times after observing each video. No significant changes occurred in FRPs per video compared to FRPs of six healthy subjects carrying out the spontaneous bending activity. Observing a painful action in another person changes motor performance and increases fear in both people with and without back pain, during self-directed trunk flexion, but not during a protocolled trunk flexion.

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Freezing or escaping? Opposite modulations of empathic reactivity to the pain of others

Cited by 79 publications

References 19 publications

Neural processing of sensory and emotional-communicative information associated with the perception of vicarious pain

Neural processing of sensory and emotional-communicative information associated with the perception of vicarious pain

Emotion regulatory function of parent attention to child pain and associated implications for parental pain control behaviour

Changes in spontaneous overt motor execution immediately after observing others’ painful action: two pilot studies

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