The Power of Pain: How Pain Representations Impact Neural Responses of Empathy

Abstract

Showing empathy to others in pain helps forge stronger social connections. Pain could be expressed through various ways, which may activate distinctive empathic responses. However, few studies have investigated the influence of pain representations on neural responses of pain. This study examined this question by recording EEG signals of 28 neurotypical adults during a pain empathy task. Sixty-two video clips depicting the natural unfolding pain process including three phases (i.e., antecedent cause phase, pain event phase, and affective consequence phase) were used as stimuli. During the antecedent cause phase, the visual perception-related ERPs, such as N100 and P100, were elicited with no significant condition differences (pain vs. no-pain). Later, the pain event phase activated a frontal P300 without condition differences and another posterior-occipital N200 with less negativity during the pain event condition compared to the no-pain condition. Finally, the affective consequence phase, which depicted either pained or neutral faces of the main character, activated a more positive frontal-central-posterior P200 and a more negative posterior-occipital N170 during the pained face condition. In conclusion, our study has identified both cognitive and affective components of empathy which are modulated by different pain representations. Furthermore, the facial coding-related ERP, such as the N170, was specifically elicited by showing facial expressions of pain. In conclusion, empathy for others’ pain involves multiple subcomponents and is influenced by pain representations.