Perceiving Pain in Others: Automatic and Controlled Mechanisms

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The Actions and Feelings Questionnaire in Autism and Typically Developed Adults

Open access via Springer Compact Agreement We are grateful to Simon Baron-Cohen and Paula Smith of the Cambridge Autism Centre for the use of the ARC database in distributing the questionnaire, to all participants for completing it, to Eilidh Farquar for special efforts in distributing the link and to Gemma Matthews for advice on using AMOS 23. JHGW is supported by the Northwood Trust.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

fMRI exploration of the cerebral mechanisms of the perception of pain in others via facial expression

La douleur ressentie entraine des réactions de différents ordres : physique, neurologique, comportemental. L’expression de la douleur sur un visage constitue une de ces réactions, d’ordre comportemental. Cette expression faciale intègre les éléments caractérisant la douleur ressentie et il est possible de l’analyser en tant qu’observateur extérieur. Les travaux d’imagerie cérébrale étudiant la réaction du cerveau à la perception d’une douleur chez autrui ont mis en lumière un chevauchement entre les régions du cerveau réagissant à une douleur personnellement ressentie et celles réagissant à l’observation d’une expression de douleur chez les autres. Dans la première étude présentée ici, la réaction du cerveau à l’expression de la douleur chez autrui a été analysée en établissant dans quelle mesure l’intensité plus ou moins forte de la douleur exprimée pouvait moduler cette réaction. Les résultats de cette étude indiquent que la perception de la douleur chez autrui ne concerne pas seulement certaines régions du cerveau réagissant à la douleur personnellement ressentie mais aussi des régions habituellement impliquées dans le système des neurones miroirs (MNS; « human mirror neuron system ») ainsi que dans des régions associées à la Théorie de l’esprit (‘Theory of Mind’, ToM; ou « mentalizing »). En outre, ce travail montre que l’implication relative de ces différentes régions varie selon que la personne évalue la signification affective de l’expression – la magnitude de la douleur – ou qu’elle discrimine les composantes motrices de l’expression – les mouvements faciaux. Une deuxième étude a donc été réalisée, s’appuyant sur un paradigme combinant l’observation et l’exécution pour vérifier et confirmer la « réponse miroir » observée dans la première étude et pour examiner plus en détail les différences apparentes entre la résonance émotionnelle et la résonance motrice. En confirmation de la première étude, il a été établi que ce sont différentes régions du cerveau qui sont impliquées dans les réactions à l’expression de la douleur selon qu’elles relèvent de la résonance émotionnelle ou de la résonance motrice. En somme, ces résultats montrent que la perception de la douleur chez autrui est un processus complexe qui met en jeu un chevauchement entre les régions réagissant à une douleur personnellement ressentie et à une douleur constatée chez autrui, ainsi que les phénomènes de résonance motrice (« mirroring ») et de « mentalizing », processus plus généraux de la cognition sociale.The pain experience provokes several responses – physical, neural, behavioral. The facial expression of pain is one such behavioral response: it encodes the subjective experience of pain and, as observers, we can decode it. Neuroimaging studies looking at the brain response to the perception of pain in others have identified overlap between brain areas active for the experience of self-pain, and those active during the observation of pain in others. In the first study described below, the brain response to pain in others was investigated using a paradigm that investigated how the intensity of the perceived pain modulated the brain response. The results of this work indicate that the perception of pain in others involves not only certain brain regions involved in self-pain, but also regions previously implicated in the human mirror neuron system (MNS), as well as areas underlying Theory of Mind (i.e. mentalizing). Further, the relative contribution of these areas depended on whether the subject is evaluating the affective meaning of the expression – the pain magnitude – or if they are discriminating the motor components of the expression – the facial movements. A second study was thus designed, using a combined observation and execution paradigm, to confirm the mirroring response observed in the first study, as well as to further explore the hypothesized difference between emotional and motor mirroring. Similarly to the first study, it was found that different brain regions are responsible for mirroring for emotional, versus motor, content of the observed pain expressions. Taken together, these results reveal the perception of pain in others to be a complex process that involves overlap between self and other affective pain areas, as well as mirroring and mentalizing – more general processes of social cognition

Social touch and human development.

Social touch is a powerful force in human development, shaping social reward, attachment, cognitive, communication, and emotional regulation from infancy and throughout life. In this review, we consider the question of how social touch is defined from both bottom-up and top-down perspectives. In the former category, there is a clear role for the C-touch (CT) system, which constitutes a unique submodality that mediates affective touch and contrasts with discriminative touch. Top-down factors such as culture, personal relationships, setting, gender, and other contextual influences are also important in defining and interpreting social touch. The critical role of social touch throughout the lifespan is considered, with special attention to infancy and young childhood, a time during which social touch and its neural, behavioral, and physiological contingencies contribute to reinforcement-based learning and impact a variety of developmental trajectories. Finally, the role of social touch in an example of disordered development -autism spectrum disorder-is reviewed

A biopsychosocial formulation of pain communication

We present a detailed framework for understanding the numerous and complicated interactions among psychological and social determinants of pain through examination of the process of pain communication. The focus is on an improved understanding of immediate dyadic transactions during painful events in the context of broader social phenomena. Fine-grain consideration of social transactions during pain leads to an appreciation of sociobehavioral events affecting both suffering persons as well as caregivers. Our examination considers knowledge from a variety of perspectives, including clinical health psychology, social and developmental processes, evolutionary psychology, communication studies, and behavioral neuroscience

Vicarious facilitation of facial responses to pain

Introduction: Observing facial expressions of pain has been shown to lead to increased subjective, neural and autonomic pain responses. Surprisingly, these vicarious facilitation effects on its corresponding response channel, namely facial responses to pain have mostly been neglected. We aim to examine whether the prior exposure to facial expressions of pain leads to a facilitation of facial responses to experimental pain; and whether this facilitation is linked to the valence (pain vs. neutral expression) or also linked to specific motor-features of the facial pain expressions (different facial muscle movements). Method: Subjective (intensity and unpleasantness ratings) and facial responses (Facial Action Coding System) of 64 participants (34 female) to painful and non-painful heat stimuli were assessed. Before each heat stimulus, video clips of computer-generated facial expressions (three different pain expressions and a neutral expression) were presented. Results: The prior exposure to facial expressions of pain led to increased subjective and facial responses to pain. Further, vicarious pain facilitation of facial responses was significantly correlated with facilitation of unpleasantness ratings. We also found evidence that this vicarious facilitation of facial responses was not only linked to the presentation of pain versus neutral expressions but also to specific motor-features of the pain cue (increase in congruent facial muscle movements). Discussion: Vicarious pain facilitation was found for subjective and facial responses to pain. The results are discussed with reference to the motivational priming hypothesis as well as with reference to motor priming. Significance: Our study uncovers evidence that facial pain responses are not only influenced by motivational priming (similar to other types of pain responses), but also by motor-priming. These findings shed light on the complexity -ranging from social, affective and motor mechanisms -underling vicarious facilitation of pain

고통 공감의 의지적 조절과 그 성차: EEG 연구

학위논문(석사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 인문대학 협동과정 인지과학전공, 2021.8. 이성은.Contrary to the long-held belief that empathy is automatic and reflexive, recent evidence has begun to emphasize the role of top-down processes in empathic experience. That is, empathy is increasingly conceived as motivational in nature. The present study aims to investigate whether the effect of motivation for empathy is modulated by biological sex. 24 subjects (14 men, 10 women) viewed pictures of painful situations either passively or actively trying to up- or down-regulate empathy. As an index of empathic resonance with the target’s pain, I measured the EEG mu suppression. The results showed that men, as expected, exhibited the strongest mu suppression during up-regulation. For women, however, the strongest mu suppression occurred while trying to down-regulate pain empathy. One possible interpretation of such results for women is that their active inhibiting efforts “backfired”, paradoxically leading to the greatest level of vicarious pain. In conclusion, women appear to experience greater difficulty voluntarily modulating pain empathy. Empathy for men, on the other hand, appears to be more motivational and flexible in nature. These findings contribute a line of neural evidence to the Primary Caretaker Hypothesis, which posits that empathy may have evolved from offspring care, a role predominantly associated by female primates. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.공감이란, 타인이 겪고 있는 감정적 상황을 마주할 때, 그 감정을 공유하는 인지적 현상을 의미한다. 학계의 인식과 대중의 통념을 막론하고, 공감은 자동적인 현상으로 오랫동안 이해되어 왔다. 즉, 공감은 단순 반사와 같은 현상으로서 선천적으로 부여된 기질이자 능력이기에, 그 경험을 크게 향상시키거나 억제하는 등의 자발적 조절은 쉽지 않다고 여겨져 왔다. 하지만, 공감의 경험에 있어 주체의 선택이나 의지가 갖는 역할이 간과되어서는 안 되며, 본 연구는 이러한 공감의 하향식(top-down) 조절에 주목하고자 하였다. 본 연구는 ‘일차양육자 가설’을 그 이론적 기반으로 차용하여, 공감의 하향식 조절에 있어 생물학적 남녀차가 있을 것임을 예측하였다. 이러한 가설을 경험적으로 확인하기 위하여, 총 24명(남성 14명, 여성 10명)의 참여자가 모집되었다. 이들은 고통스러운 상황을 묘사하는 사진을 총 세 가지 조건 아래에서 감상하였다. 첫째, 평소와 같은 상태, 둘째, 상대의 고통에 대한 공감을 최대화하기 위하여 적극적으로 노력하는 상태, 셋째, 상대의 고통에 대한 공감을 최소화하기 위하여 적극적으로 노력하는 상태가 상기한 세 가지 조건이었다. 이 때, 상이한 조건들 아래에서 참여자가 보이는 고통 공감의 정도는 EEG(electroencephalogram)를 통하여 뇌파의 형태로써 기록되었다. 보다 구체적으로, 고통 공감의 정도는 참여자의 체감각피질의 간접적 활성화 정도를 반영하는 뮤리듬을 통하여 측정되었다. 실험 결과, 남성들은 공감을 증가시키기 위하여 노력할 때, 가장 강한 체감각피질의 활성화를 보였다. 그러나 여성의 경우, 공감을 억제하기 위하여 노력하는 동안 역설적으로 가장 강한 체감각피질의 활성화를 보였다. 이러한 결과는, 인위적으로 고통 공감을 억제하려는 노력이 오히려 역효과를 야기하였을 가능성을 비친다. 즉, 본 연구의 결과는, 여성의 공감이 남성의 그것에 비해 더욱 자동적이며 보편적으로 체화된 생물학적 반응일 수 있음을 함의한다. 반면, 남성의 고통 공감은 더 유연하며 선택적 성질을 띨 수 있는 것으로 보인다. 따라서, 이들의 고통 공감에 대한 의지적 조절은 상대적으로 더 수월할 수 있었다고 해석 가능하다. 본 연구의 이러한 발견은, 공감의 진화적 근원은 ‘육아’라는 여성의 역할이라고 추정하는 ‘일차양육자 가설’에 뇌과학적 근거를 기여할 수 있을 것으로 판단한다. 그 밖의 이론적, 실용적 함의가 논의된다.1.Introduction 1 2.Literature Review 7 2.1. The Nature of Empathy 7 2.1.1. Empathy and Its Neurobiological Basis 7 2.1.2. Pain Empathy and Its Neurobiological Basis 10 2.2. Theories of Empathy 12 2.2.1. Automaticity as a Theme in the Empathy Literature 12 2.2.2. Motivation as a Theme in the Empathy Literature 15 2.2.3. Sex-related Effects in Motivated Empathy 19 2.3. Research Objectives and Hypotheses 23 3.Methodology 24 3.1. Electroencephalogram (EEG) 24 3.2. Time-Frequency Analysis 25 3.3. Mu Rhythm 26 3.4. Alpha Rhythm 29 3.5. Overview of the Study 30 4.Expereiment 31 4.1. Participants 31 4.2. General Procedures 32 4.3. Picture Stimuli 35 4.4. EEG Data Acquisition 37 4.5. EEG Data Pre-processing and Time-Frequency Analysis 38 4.6. Statistical Analysis 40 5.Results 41 5.1. Behavioral Results 41 5.2. EEG Results 42 5.3. Correlation of Mu Suppressions and Self-report Measures of Pain Empathy 46 6. Discussion 47 6.1. Summary and Interpretation of the Results 47 6.2. Theoretical Contributions and Practical Implications 54 6.3. Limitations and Future Directions 55 7. Overall Conclusions 56 References 58 Appendix 74 Abstract in Korean 78석

Seven Computations of the Social Brain

The social environment presents the human brain with the most complex of information processing demands. The computations that the brain must perform occur in parallel, combine social and nonsocial cues, produce verbal and non-verbal signals, and involve multiple cognitive systems; including memory, attention, emotion, learning. This occurs dynamically and at timescales ranging from milliseconds to years. Here, we propose that during social interactions, seven core operations interact to underwrite coherent social functioning; these operations accumulate evidence efficiently – from multiple modalities – when inferring what to do next. We deconstruct the social brain and outline the key components entailed for successful human social interaction. These include (1) social perception; (2) social inferences, such as mentalizing; (3) social learning; (4) social signaling through verbal and non-verbal cues; (5) social drives (e.g., how to increase one’s status); (6) determining the social identity of agents, including oneself; and (7) minimizing uncertainty within the current social context by integrating sensory signals and inferences. We argue that while it is important to examine these distinct aspects of social inference, to understand the true nature of the human social brain, we must also explain how the brain integrates information from the social world