Is there a core neural network in empathy? An fMRI based quantitative meta-analysis

Fan, Yan; Duncan, Niall W.; Greck, Moritz de; Northoff, Georg

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.10.009

Cited by 816 publications

(699 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Thus, the activation found in this region is consistent with the concept of shared neural representations for the observation of pain in others and its first-hand experience (Y. Fan et al, 2011;Lamm et al, 2011). The finding that pain-exposed individuals responded similarly to painful and neutral stimuli in the PCC may suggest that they perceived potential pain in the neutral condition, as well.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Prior exposure to extreme pain alters neural response to pain in others

Eidelman-Rothman

Goldstein

Weisman

et al. 2016

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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In the extant literature examining the brain mechanisms implicated in pain perception, researchers have theorized that the overlapping responses to pain in the self and in others mark the human capacity for empathy. Here we investigated how prior exposure to extreme pain affects pain perception, by assessing the dynamics of pain processing in veterans who were previously exposed to severe injury. Fortythree participants (28 pain-exposed and 15 controls) underwent whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) while viewing photographs of limbs in painful and nonpainful (neutral) conditions. Among controls, an early (0-220 ms) Bpain effect^in the posterior cingulate and sensorimotor cortices, and a later (760-900 ms) Bpain effect^in the posterior cingulate cortex, superior temporal gyrus/insula, and fusiform gyrus were found, indicated by enhanced alpha suppression to the pain versus nonpain conditions. Importantly, pain-exposed participants exhibited an atypical pain response in the posterior cingulate cortex, indicated by a normative response to pain, but no pain-to-no-pain differentiation. This may suggest that individuals exposed to extreme pain may perceive neutral stimuli as potentially threatening. Our findings demonstrate alterations in pain perception following extreme pain exposure, chart the sequence from automatic to evaluative pain processing, and emphasize the importance of considering past experiences in studying the neural response to others' states.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Prior exposure to extreme pain alters neural response to pain in others

Eidelman-Rothman

Goldstein

Weisman

et al. 2016

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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“…This conclusion may be explained by a previous study that investigated dorsal ACC and MCC, showing that they subserved cognitive and emotional processing (Bush et al., 2002). Some studies found that the MCC is a core node of empathy that includes cognitive and affective components (Decety, Chen, Harenski, & Kiehl, 2013; Fan, Duncan, de Greck, & Northoff, 2011). So the contribution part may be the anterior part of the MCC (CCdam, CCvam) according to our study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional and anatomical connectivity‐based parcellation of human cingulate cortex

et al. 2018

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IntroductionHuman cingulate cortex (CC) has been implicated in many functions, which is highly suggestive of the existence of functional subregions.MethodsIn this study, we used resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs‐fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to parcellate the human cingulate cortex (CC) based on resting‐state functional connectivity (rsFC) patterns and anatomical connectivity (AC) patterns, to analyze the rsFC patterns and the AC patterns of different subregions, and to recognize whether the parcellation results obtained by the two different methods were consistent.ResultsThe CC was divided into six functional subregions, including the anterior cingulate cortex, dorsal anterior midcingulate cortex, ventral anterior midcingulate cortex, posterior midcingulate cortex, dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, and ventral posterior cingulate cortex. The CC was also divided into ten anatomical subregions, termed Subregion 1 (S1) to Subregion 10 (S10). Each subregion showed specific connectivity patterns, although the functional subregions and the anatomical subregions were internally consistent.ConclusionsUsing different model MRI images, we established a parcellation scheme, which is internally consistent for the human CC, which may provide an in vivo guide for subregion‐level studies and improve our understanding of this brain area at subregional levels.

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“…A priori, the Affect Module was expected to result in changes primarily in affect-relevant cortices, such as AI, midcingulate, and orbital frontal regions, as well as the subgenual ACC, SMG, and dlPFC (8,9,(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24). For Perspective, we primarily expected changes in ToM networks including the medial PFC, ventrolateral PFC, precuneus, temporal neocortices, and TPJ (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural plasticity of the social brain: Differential change after socio-affective and cognitive mental training

Valk¹,

Bernhardt²,

Trautwein³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Although neuroscientific research has revealed experience-dependent brain changes across the life span in sensory, motor, and cognitive domains, plasticity relating to social capacities remains largely unknown. To investigate whether the targeted mental training of different cognitive and social skills can induce specific changes in brain morphology, we collected longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data throughout a 9-month mental training intervention from a large sample of adults between 20 and 55 years of age. By means of various daily mental exercises and weekly instructed group sessions, training protocols specifically addressed three functional domains: (i) mindfulness-based attention and interoception, (ii) socio-affective skills (compassion, dealing with difficult emotions, and prosocial motivation), and (iii) socio-cognitive skills (cognitive perspective-taking on self and others and metacognition). MRIbased cortical thickness analyses, contrasting the different training modules against each other, indicated spatially diverging changes in cortical morphology. Training of present-moment focused attention mostly led to increases in cortical thickness in prefrontal regions, socio-affective training induced plasticity in frontoinsular regions, and sociocognitive training included change in inferior frontal and lateral temporal cortices. Module-specific structural brain changes correlated with training-induced behavioral improvements in the same individuals in domain-specific measures of attention, compassion, and cognitive perspective-taking, respectively, and overlapped with task-relevant functional networks. Our longitudinal findings indicate structural plasticity in well-known socio-affective and socio-cognitive brain networks in healthy adults based on targeted short daily mental practices. These findings could promote the development of evidence-based mental training interventions in clinical, educational, and corporate settings aimed at cultivating social intelligence, prosocial motivation, and cooperation.

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Is there a core neural network in empathy? An fMRI based quantitative meta-analysis

Cited by 816 publications

References 75 publications

Prior exposure to extreme pain alters neural response to pain in others

Prior exposure to extreme pain alters neural response to pain in others

Functional and anatomical connectivity‐based parcellation of human cingulate cortex

Structural plasticity of the social brain: Differential change after socio-affective and cognitive mental training

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