The interaction of emotion and pain in the insula and secondary somatosensory cortex.
Abstract
Pain is processed in a large neural network that partially overlaps structures involved in emotion processing. Despite the fact that pain and emotion are known to share neural regions and interact in numerous clinical conditions, relatively little is known about the interaction of pain and emotion at the neural level. This study on healthy adults aimed to investigate the interaction between negative and positive emotional stimuli and experimental pain in an essential pain processing network. Sixteen healthy young adult subjects were exposed to pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) with negative, neutral or positive valence, along with laser pain stimuli. The stimuli were pseudo-randomly arranged in three 15-min experiment series comprising 49 stimuli each (picture, laser or simultaneous picture and laser stimuli). The whole-brain blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal was acquired using 3T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). As expected, the pain stimulus elicited activation in the secondary somatosensory cortex (SII), insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) when compared to the baseline. The interaction of negative emotion and laser stimuli related to the activation of the left SII. The interaction of positive emotion and pain stimuli led to bilateral activation of the SII and left insula. These findings reveal interaction in parts of the pain processing network during simultaneous emotion and physical pain. We demonstrated a valence-independent interaction of emotion and pain in SII.
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SFGmed belongs to the midline structure associated with self-related process.
“SFGmed belongs to the midline structure that is also associated with the self-related process (Orenius et al., 2017; Terpou et al., 2019).”
From Enhanced Resting-State Functional Connectivity With Decreased Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations of the Salience Network in Mindfulness Novices (2022) · cites this paper as Orenius et al., 2017
The decreased spontaneous activity in right ACC and left insula is quite similar to increased activation observed in depression and decreased in skilled practitioners.
“This was quite similar to the increased activation observed in depression (Orenius et al., 2017) and decreased skilled practitioners.”
From Enhanced Resting-State Functional Connectivity With Decreased Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations of the Salience Network in Mindfulness Novices (2022) · cites this paper as Orenius et al., 2017
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“The SII, which integrates somatosensory input and emotional responses from the insula (Orenius et al. 2017), may serve as a valuable target in this process.”
- Authors
- Orenius, T. I., Raij, T. T., Nuortimo, A., Näätänen, P., Lipsanen, J., & Karlsson, H.
- Affiliations
- Tekonivelsairaala Orton (FI)
- Helsinki University Hospital (FI)
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- University of Turku (FI)
- Corresponding author
- Orenius, Tage I.
- Venue
- Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-05
- Volume
- 349
- Pages
- 185-194
- ISSN
- 0306-4522 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2594279035
- Cited by
- 94
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 4.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation
- ORTON Research Institute
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Treatment
- Keywords
- insula, secondary somatosensory cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, experimental pain, emotional valence, affective picture stimuli
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain Mapping, Emotions, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Pain, Somatosensory Cortex, Young Adult
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