Stimulus-driven modulation of motor-evoked potentials during observation of others' pain
Abstract
Empathy may allow interindividual sharing not only of emotions (e.g., joy, sadness, disgust) but also of sensations (e.g., touch, itching, pain). Although empathy for pain may rely upon both sensory and affective components of the pain experience, neuroimaging studies indicate that only the affective component of the pain matrix is involved in empathy for pain. By using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we highlighted the sensorimotor side of empathy for pain by showing a clear motor inhibition during the mere observation of needles penetrating body parts of a human model. Here, we explored stimulus-specific and instruction-specific influences on this inhibition by manipulating task instructions (request to adopt first- or third-person perspective vs. passive observation) and painfulness of the experimental stimuli (presentation of videos of needles deeply penetrating or simply pinpricking a hand). We found a significant reduction in amplitudes of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) specific to the muscle the subjects observed being penetrated that correlated with the intensity of the pain attributed to the model. Crucially, this motor inhibition was present during observation of penetrating but not of pinpricking needles. Moreover, no MEPs modulation contingent upon different task instructions was found. Results suggest that the motor inhibition elicited by the observation of "flesh and bone" pain stimuli is more stimulus-driven than instruction-driven.
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Most fMRI results support the idea that the empathizers' response relies upon representing the affective rather than the sensory consequences of the other's pain.
“While two TMS studies [15], [16] and a recent ERP study [17] suggested involvement of sensorimotor processing, most fMRI results support the idea that the empathizers' response relies upon representing the affective rather than the sensory consequences of the other's pain.”
From What are you feeling? Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the modulation of sensory and affective responses during empathy for pain (2007) · cites this paper as [16]
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- Authors
- Avenanti, A., Paluello, I. M., Bufalari, I., & Aglioti, S. M.
- Affiliations
- Fondazione Santa Lucia (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Aglioti, Salvatore M.
- Venue
- NeuroImage
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2006-08
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 316-324
- ISSN
- 1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1977104693
- Cited by
- 254
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2025: 12 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 22.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) (submittedVersion)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Treatment
- Keywords
- empathy for pain, motor evoked potentials, motor inhibition, needle penetration, pain intensity, first-person perspective, third-person perspective, pain matrix
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attention, Brain Mapping, Empathy, Female, Humans, Functional Laterality, Male, Needles, Pain, Pain Measurement, Video Recording, Wounds, Penetrating, Evoked Potentials, Motor, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
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