I feel how you feel but not always: the empathic brain and its modulation

Hein, Grit; Singer, Tania

doi:10.1016/j.conb.2008.07.012

Cited by 513 publications

(394 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Vision of noxious stimuli seen as approaching another person's body induces arousal responses in healthy humans [27]. It has been argued that such responses are mainly based on the cognitive evaluation of the approaching stimulus which would produce an automatic anticipatory response [29,50] that has been hypothesized to be mediated by emphatic sharing of the affective component of pain [51,52]. Furthermore, previous works reported that the vision of one's own stimulated body parts can modulate pain thresholds [20,44] or the rating of pain intensity [22], suggesting an analgesic effect when looking at one's own body.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illusory self-identification with an avatar reduces arousal responses to painful stimuli

Romano

Pfeiffer

Maravita

et al. 2014

Behavioural Brain Research

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h i g h l i g h t s• We experimentally induced the full body illusion through a robotic device.• We collected SCRs and ratings following acute pain stimulation during bodily illusion.• Reduced arousal responses were detectable under illusory states of self-consciousness.• Reduced SCR was related to the degree of ownership experienced for the virtual body.• Virtual body must be in anatomical configuration to be effective. a r t i c l e i n f o b s t r a c tLooking at one's own body has been shown to induce analgesia. In the present work we investigated whether illusory self-identification with an avatar, as induced experimentally through visuo-tactile stimulation, modulates the response to painful stimuli.In 30 healthy volunteers, a robotic device was used to stroke the participants' back, while they viewed either the body of an avatar, a non-body object (control object), or a body avatar with scrambled body parts (control body). All were visually stimulated in either congruent or incongruent fashion with the participant's body. We collected physiological responses (skin conductance response: SCR) to painful stimuli delivered to the participant's hand and responses to a questionnaire inquiring about self-identification with the avatar. We expected reduced physiological responses to pain during the observation of a body avatar only during synchronous visuo-tactile stroking and no reduction for the control object and the control body.Results showed a reduced SCR to painful stimuli when participants observed the normal body avatar being stroked synchronously that was also associated with largest self-identification ratings recordable already during the pain anticipation. Moreover, a negative correlation between self-identification and SCR was observed, suggesting that a greater degree of self-identification with the avatar was associated with larger decreases in SCR. These results suggest that during states of illusory self-identification with the avatar, the vision of an alien body (anatomically compatible for the vision and congruently stroked for the touch) is effective in modulating physiological responses to painful stimuli.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illusory self-identification with an avatar reduces arousal responses to painful stimuli

Romano

Pfeiffer

Maravita

et al. 2014

Behavioural Brain Research

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“…Empathy for pain studies demonstrated that empathic inference about others' pain is associated to activation of the pain matrix, i.e., the neural network that maps the first-hand experience of pain (Hein and Singer, 2008). 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).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies focused on whether vicarious pain is mapped on affective or sensory nodes of the pain matrix (Hein and Singer, 2008). However, empathy for pain, like higher-order cognitive functions, may be based on the functional interaction of neuronal assemblies distributed within and across different specialized brain regions (Varela et al, 2001;Fries, 2005Fries, , 2009.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Betti¹,

Zappasodi²,

Rossini³

et al. 2009

J. Neurosci.

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Neuroscience studies on the social sharing of observed or imagined pain focused on whether empathic pain resonance is linked to affective or sensory nodes of the pain matrix. However, empathy, like other complex cognitive processes, is inherently linked to the activation of functional networks rather than of separate brain areas. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to explore the relationship between empathy and functional coupling of neuronal activity in primary somatosensory (SI) and motor (MI) cortices. MEG recording was performed while healthy participants observed movie-clips depicting the static hand of a stranger model, the same hand deeply penetrated by a needle, or gently touched by a Q-tip. Subjects were asked to rate the movie-derived sensations attributed to self or to the model. For each type of clip observation, we analyzed spectral power and coherence values in ␣, ␤, and ␥ frequency bands. While spectral power indexes separate neural activity in SI and MI, coherence values index functional cross-talk between these two areas. No power changes of SI or MI sources were induced by observation conditions in any of the frequency bands. Crucially, ␥-band coherence values were significantly higher during needle-in-hand than touch and static hand observation and correlated with self-and otherreferred pain ratings derived from needle-in-hand movies observation. Thus, observation of others' pain increases neuronal synchronization and cross-talk between the onlookers' sensory and motor cortices, indicating that empathic resonance relies upon the activity of functional networks more than of single areas.

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“…De même que pour les actions, l'observation de certaines sensations et émotions chez autrui pourrait engager des processus qui sont également mis en jeu lorsque nous ressentons nousmêmes ces émotions ou sensations. Par exemple, de nombreuses études en neuro-imagerie chez l'homme ont permis de montrer que les mêmes régions cérébrales sont impliquées lorsque le sujet ressent de la douleur et la perçoit chez autrui [4,5]. L'ensemble des résultats à notre disposition suggère qu'une forme implicite de la compréhension des actions et des émotions d'autrui pourrait être accomplie par des processus de simulations incarnées [6,7].…”

Section: éDitorialunclassified

Les émotions, modes d’action et de communication

Grèzes

2011

Med Sci (Paris)

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I feel how you feel but not always: the empathic brain and its modulation

Cited by 513 publications

References 49 publications

Illusory self-identification with an avatar reduces arousal responses to painful stimuli

Illusory self-identification with an avatar reduces arousal responses to painful stimuli

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

Les émotions, modes d’action et de communication

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