“Feeling” others' painful actions: The sensorimotor integration of pain and action information

Abstract

Sensorimotor regions of the brain have been implicated in simulation processes such as action understanding and empathy, but their functional role in these processes remains unspecified. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate that postcentral sensorimotor cortex integrates action and object information to derive the sensory outcomes of observed hand–object interactions. When subjects viewed others’ hands grasping or withdrawing from objects that were either painful or nonpainful, distinct sensorimotor subregions emerged as showing preferential responses to different aspects of the stimuli: object information (noxious vs. innocuous), action information (grasps vs. withdrawals), and painful action outcomes (painful grasps vs. all other conditions). Activation in the latter region correlated with subjects’ ratings of how painful each object would be to touch and their previous experience with the object. Viewing others’ painful grasps also biased behavioral responses to actual tactile stimulation, a novel effect not seen for auditory control stimuli. Somatosensory cortices, including primary somatosensory areas 1/3b and 2 and parietal area PF, may therefore subserve somatomotor simulation processes by integrating action and object information to anticipate the sensory consequences of observed hand–object interactions. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Reach Out and Touch Someone: Anticipatory Sensorimotor Processes of Active Interpersonal Touch

“…A similar principle could apply to lOT, a multisensory region responding both to tactile stimulation (Hagen et al, 2002) and to the sight of touch (Ebisch et al, 2008). This is consistent with the proposal that multimodal circuits in the brain driving oneʼs actions and sensations can ground an experience-based perception and generate expectations of othersʼ sensations during social interaction based on embodied simulation (Morrison et al, 2013;Gallese & Sinigaglia, 2011;Sebanz et al, 2006;Wilson & Knoblich, 2005;Gallese, 2003;Gallese & Goldman, 1998). …”

“…For example, in a previous study, we found that aIPL not only activates in response to tactile input, but also for the mere observation of another individual being touched (Ebisch et al, 2008). Furthermore, Morrison et al (2013) postulated that aIPL, together with PostCG, may subserve the anticipation of the sensory consequences of observed hand-object interactions through the integration of action information and external information about the object. Here, we extend these findings by showing that aIPL and PostCS also activate in anticipation of active interpersonal touch without the need for any sensory input.…”

“…Furthermore, empirical evidence consistently suggests that primary (SI, in particular BA 2) and secondary (SII) somatosensory cortices also contribute to the understanding of other individualsʼ tactile experiences (see, for reviews, Gallese & Ebisch, 2013;Gallese & Sinigaglia, 2011;Keysers et al, 2010). Some studies indicated that other regions endowed with tactile properties, like anterior inferior parietal lobule (aIPL), ventral premotor cortex, and lateral occipital-temporal cortex (lOT), could also be involved in somatosensory aspects of social perception (Morrison, Tipper, Fenton-Adams, & Bach, 2013;Ebisch et al, 2008). Although not systematically investigated, psychological evidence supports a role of embodied simulation in the predictive coding of othersʼ peripheral sensations (Bosbach, Cole, Prinz, & Knoblich, 2005).…”

“…Although not systematically investigated, psychological evidence supports a role of embodied simulation in the predictive coding of othersʼ peripheral sensations (Bosbach, Cole, Prinz, & Knoblich, 2005). Neuroimaging studies suggested that predicting the consequences of observed object-directed actions involves brain regions with somatosensory properties (Morrison et al, 2013;Ramsey, Cross, & Hamilton, 2012).…”

The role of the right temporoparietal junction in the elicitation of vicarious experiences and detection accuracy while observing pain and touch

“…For that reason, the control videos consisted of a hand approaching another hand without holding an object. Morrison, Tipper, Fenton-Adams, and Bach (2013) showed that separate somatosensory regions responded more strongly when the observed action targeted noxious rather than neutral objects, irrespective of the action carried out with them. This suggests an encoding of tactile object properties independent of action properties.…”