Seeing touch and pain in a stranger modulates the cortical responses elicited by somatosensory but not auditory stimulation

Valentini, Elia; Liang, Meng; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria; Iannetti, Gian Domenico

doi:10.1002/hbm.21408

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…CLARA is a novel iterative source analysis method which operates by performing a weighted LORETA (Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography Analysis, [ 52 ]) on each iteration, followed by source space reduction. Compared to the standard LORETA method, CLARA reduces the blurring of the estimated sources while maintaining the advantages of a predefined distributed source model, thus making it easier to obtain a relatively focal distribution of source activation [ 53 – 55 ]. It combines the advantages of discrete and distributed source analysis by employing distributed source analysis with a shrinking of the source space.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pain Catastrophising Affects Cortical Responses to Viewing Pain in Others

Fallon

Stančák

2015

PLoS ONE

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Pain catastrophising is an exaggerated cognitive attitude implemented during pain or when thinking about pain. Catastrophising was previously associated with increased pain severity, emotional distress and disability in chronic pain patients, and is also a contributing factor in the development of neuropathic pain. To investigate the neural basis of how pain catastrophising affects pain observed in others, we acquired EEG data in groups of participants with high (High-Cat) or low (Low-Cat) pain catastrophising scores during viewing of pain scenes and graphically matched pictures not depicting imminent pain. The High-Cat group attributed greater pain to both pain and non-pain pictures. Source dipole analysis of event-related potentials during picture viewing revealed activations in the left (PHGL) and right (PHGR) paraphippocampal gyri, rostral anterior (rACC) and posterior cingulate (PCC) cortices. The late source activity (600–1100 ms) in PHGL and PCC was augmented in High-Cat, relative to Low-Cat, participants. Conversely, greater source activity was observed in the Low-Cat group during the mid-latency window (280–450 ms) in the rACC and PCC. Low-Cat subjects demonstrated a significantly stronger correlation between source activity in PCC and pain and arousal ratings in the long latency window, relative to high pain catastrophisers. Results suggest augmented activation of limbic cortex and higher order pain processing cortical regions during the late processing period in high pain catastrophisers viewing both types of pictures. This pattern of cortical activations is consistent with the distorted and magnified cognitive appraisal of pain threats in high pain catastrophisers. In contrast, high pain catastrophising individuals exhibit a diminished response during the mid-latency period when attentional and top-down resources are ascribed to observed pain.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pain Catastrophising Affects Cortical Responses to Viewing Pain in Others

Fallon

Stančák

2015

PLoS ONE

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“…However, Godinho with co-workers reported that an increase in the intensity of pain to noxious electric stimuli, that occurred when observing bodily injuries, was accompanied by modulation of late components of somatosensory evoked potentials and the activity in the prefrontal cortex, pregenual cingulate cortex, and temporo-parietal-occipital junction, but not in the somatosensory cortex or other core areas of the pain matrix (Godinho et al 2006, 2012). 1 Interestingly, in contrast to pain elicited by electric pulses or sustained heat, pain sensations evoked by brief laser heat stimuli were not changed during observation of hands undergoing needle penetrations in two studies (Valeriani et al 2008; Valentini et al 2012). It is thus possible that perception of brief heat pain is not affected by seeing pain in others.…”

Section: How Pain In Others Influences the Processing And Perception mentioning

confidence: 98%

The Role of Sensorimotor Processes in Pain Empathy

Riečanský

Lamm

2019

Brain Topogr

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Pain is a salient, aversive sensation which motivates avoidance, but also has a strong social signaling function. Numerous studies have shown that regions of the nervous system active in association with first-hand pain are also active in response to the pain of others. When witnessing somatic pain, such as seeing bodies in painful situations, significant activations occur not only in areas related to the processing of negative emotions, but also in neuronal structures engaged in somatosensation and the control of skeletal muscles. These empathy-related sensorimotor activations are selectively reviewed in this article, with a focus on studies using electrophysiological methods and paradigms investigating responses to somatic pain. Convergent evidence from these studies shows that these activations (1) occur at multiple levels of the nervous system, from the spinal cord up to the cerebral cortex, (2) are best conceptualized as activations of a defensive system, in line with the role of pain to protect body from injury, and (3) contribute to establishing a matching of psychological states between the sufferer and the observer, which ultimately supports empathic understanding and motivate prosocial action. Future research should thus focus on how these sensorimotor responses are related to higher-order empathic responses, including affective sharing and emotion regulation, and how this motivates approach-related prosocial behaviors aimed at alleviating the pain and suffering of others.

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“…The pain matrix is composed of lateral (sensory–discriminatory involving areas such as the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex, thalamus, and posterior parts of the insula) and medial (affective–cognitive–evaluative involving areas such as the anterior parts of the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and prefrontal cortex) neuroanatomical components 3–7. Empathy for pain induces not only affective–motivational representations, but also sensory–discriminatory representations in the brain 8–10. Thus, we can use empathic pain to explore the pain system without inducing actual pain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frequency-dependent changes in sensorimotor and pain affective systems induced by empathy for pain

Motoyama¹,

Ogata²,

Hoka³

et al. 2017

JPR

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BackgroundEmpathy for pain helps us to understand the pain of others indirectly. To better comprehend the processing of empathic pain, we report the frequency-dependent modulation of cortical oscillations induced by watching movies depicting pain using high-density electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and motor evoked potentials (MEP).MethodsEvent-related desynchronization of EEG and MEG was assessed while participants viewed videos of painful (needle) or neutral (cotton swab) situations. The amplitudes of MEPs were also compared between the needle and cotton swab conditions.ResultsThe degree of suppression in α/β band power was significantly increased, whereas that of γ band power was significantly decreased, in the needle condition compared with the cotton swab condition. EEG revealed that significant differences in α/β band were distributed in the right frontocentral and left parietooccipital regions, whereas significant γ band differences were distributed predominantly over the right hemisphere, which were confirmed by source estimation using MEG. There was a significant positive correlation between the difference in γ power of the two conditions and the visual analog scale subjective rating of aversion, but not in the α/β band. The amplitude of MEPs decreased in the needle condition, which confirmed the inhibition of the primary motor cortex.ConclusionMEP suppression supports that modulation of cortical oscillations by viewing movies depicting pain involves sensorimotor processing. Our results suggest that α/β oscillations underlie the sensory qualities of others’ pain, whereas the γ band reflects the cognitive aspect. Therefore, α/β and γ band oscillations are differentially involved in empathic pain processing under the condition of motor cortical suppression.

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Seeing touch and pain in a stranger modulates the cortical responses elicited by somatosensory but not auditory stimulation

Cited by 18 publications

References 81 publications

Pain Catastrophising Affects Cortical Responses to Viewing Pain in Others

Pain Catastrophising Affects Cortical Responses to Viewing Pain in Others

The Role of Sensorimotor Processes in Pain Empathy

Frequency-dependent changes in sensorimotor and pain affective systems induced by empathy for pain

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