A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on pain empathy: investigating the role of visual information and observers’ perspective

Abstract

Empathy relies on brain systems that support the interaction between an observer’s mental state and cues about the others’ experience. Beyond the core brain areas typically activated in pain empathy studies (insular and anterior cingulate cortices), the diversity of paradigms used may reveal secondary networks that subserve other more specific processes. A coordinate-based meta-analysis of fMRI experiments on pain empathy was conducted to obtain activation likelihood estimates along three factors and seven conditions: visual cues (body parts, facial expressions), visuospatial (first-person, thirdperson), and cognitive (self-, stimuli-, other-oriented tasks) perspectives. The core network was found across cues and perspectives, and common activation was observed in higher-order visual areas. Body-parts distinctly activated areas related with sensorimotor processing (superior and inferior parietal lobules, anterior insula) while facial expression distinctly involved the inferior frontal gyrus. Self- compared to other-perspective produced distinct activations in the left insula while stimulus- versus other-perspective produced distinctive responses in the inferior frontal and parietal lobules, precentral gyrus, and cerebellum. Pain empathy relies on a core network which is modulated by several secondary networks. The involvement of the latter seems to depend on the visual cues available and the observer's mental state that can be influenced by specific instructions.

Emotional contagion of pain across different social cues shares common and process-specific neural representations

“…The idea that vicarious pain across different induction procedures shares common neural representations has been supported by meta-analyses covering previous fMRI pain empathy studies that demonstrated overlapping activation in the insular and cingulate cortex 3,9 . Consistent with these meta-analytic findings we found that these regions were consistently engaged during both physical and affective vicarious pain.…”

“…refs. 3,9 ). However, the conventional univariate approach lacks anatomical and functional specificity to test the question of whether vicarious pain across different modalities shares common and process-specific neural representations 10,25,27,43 .…”

“…Examining similarities with our general vicarious pain-predictive pattern revealed only modest spatial correlations between the two patterns (r = 0.04). The different instructions employed in the experiments might have contributed to the low overlap such that participants in the previous study were required to explicitly rate their emotional response to the stimuli whereas we decided for a passive viewing paradigm to control for cognitive processes which can modulate emotional contagion and painful experience as well as the specific neural networks engaged 3,52 . Moreover, the present pattern could successfully predict pain experience during thermal heat stimulation while the VPS was not sensitive to self-experienced pain, suggesting that the passive presentation may have better captured the emotional contagion component of vicarious pain.…”

“…Among other functions, it motivates helping and cooperative behaviors and aids in learning to avoid harmful situations 1 . Vicarious pain can be elicited by multiple types of social cues, particularly the observation of an inflicted physical injury or a facial expression of pain 2,3 . Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies employing corresponding experimental stimuli have identified distinct and common neural substrates pain empathy across vicarious pain induction procedures 3 .…”

“…Vicarious pain can be elicited by multiple types of social cues, particularly the observation of an inflicted physical injury or a facial expression of pain 2,3 . Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies employing corresponding experimental stimuli have identified distinct and common neural substrates pain empathy across vicarious pain induction procedures 3 . For example, Vachon-Presseau, et al 4 demonstrated that physical vicarious pain (the observation of noxious stimulation to a limp) induced greater activity in core regions of the mirror neuron system, specifically inferior frontal and posterior regions engaged in coding sensory-somatic information 5 while the presentation of painful facial expressions (i.e.…”