Seeing the pain of others while being in pain: A laser-evoked potentials study

The pain of a model in the personality of an onlooker: Influence of state-reactivity and personality traits on embodied empathy for pain

“…The notion of a fine-grained simulation of sensory qualities of others' experience is in line with the recent evidence of parietal somatic and multisensory activations during the observation of painful (Jackson et al, 2006;Bufalari et al, 2007;Moriguchi et al, 2007;Saarela et al, 2007;Cheng et al, 2007;Lamm et al, 2007b;Benuzzi et al, 2008;Valeriani et al, 2008) and non-painful tactile experiences (Keyser et al, 2004;Blakemore et al, 2005;Bufalari et al, 2007). For example, observing painful stimuli delivered to the hand modulated a positive short-latency component (P45) of SEPs induced by median nerve stimulation, whose origin is ascribed to primary somatosensory cortex (Bufalari et al, 2007); in a similar vein, observing pain on the hand selectively modulated the amplitude of the N1/P1 component (originating from the secondary somatosensory cortex) of LEPs induced by painful stimulations of the hand (Valeriani et al, 2008).…”

“…These onlookers' 'mirror-like' inhibitory corticospinal responses are specific to the body part stimulated in the model and correlate with the evaluation of spread and intensity (but not of the unpleasantness) of the pain ascribed to the model (Avenanti et al, 2005Minio-Paluello et al, 2006); thus, the inhibition likely reflects the simulation of basic sensory features of others' pain (intensity, diffusion, localization of pain) (Avenanti et al, 2005). In a similar vein, somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs, Bufalari et al, 2007), laser-evoked potentials (LEPs, Valeriani et al, 2008), magnetoencephalography (MEG, Cheng et al, 2008a) and neuroimaging studies (Jackson et al, 2006;Saarela et al, 2007;Moriguchi et al, 2007;Cheng et al, 2007;Lamm et al, 2007a;Lamm et al, 2007b;Benuzzi et al, 2008) indicate specific pain-related activity into the observers' somatomotor system during empathy for pain.…”

Synchronous with Your Feelings: Sensorimotor γ Band and Empathy for Pain

“…Importantly, these regions seem to be specifically involved in the observation of flesh and bone pain stimuli delivered to body parts of stranger individuals (Avenanti et al, 2005Bufalari et al, 2007;Fecteau et al, 2008;Minio-Paluello et al, 2006, 2009. The involvement of sensorimotor regions in the empathic mapping of others' pain is in keeping with TMS (Avenanti et al, 2005Minio-Paluello et al, 2006), somatosensory (Bufalari et al, 2007) and laser-evoked potentials (Valeriani et al, 2008) studies. However, the main point of novelty of our study is that the essence of empathic mapping of observed pain resides in the dynamic cross-talk between somato-motor regions much more than on their separate neural activity.…”

“…These studies provided important clues on some of the possible variables that modulate empathy for pain (Singer et al, 2006;Avenanti et al, 2006;Cheng et al, 2007;Valeriani et al, 2008) and on whether this process impinges upon the affective (Morrison et al, 2004;Singer et al, 2004), the sensorimotor (Avenanti et al, 2005;2006;Bufalari et al, 2007;Valeriani et al, 2008), or both components of the pain matrix (Saarela et al, 2007;Benuzzi et al, 2008;Costantini et al, 2008). Thus, the neural mapping of empathic phenomena has mainly been studied in terms of spatial changes of activity in single or multiple regions within or outside the pain matrix.…”

Seeing touch in the somatosensory cortex: A TMS study of the visual perception of touch

“…Beyond the domain of action, other brain systems with mirror properties have been described, including systems that are involved in both the observation as well as the experience of emotions [Carr et al, 2003;Wicker et al, 2003] and of pain [Avenanti et al, 2005;Botvinick et al, 2005;Jackson et al, 2005;Morrison et al, 2004;Singer et al, 2004;Valeriani et al, 2008;Wicker et al, 2003].…”