What are you feeling? Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the modulation of sensory and affective responses during empathy for pain.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recent neuroscientific evidence suggests that empathy for pain activates similar neural representations as the first-hand experience of pain. However, empathy is not an all-or-none phenomenon but it is strongly malleable by interpersonal, intrapersonal and situational factors. This study investigated how two different top-down mechanisms - attention and cognitive appraisal - affect the perception of pain in others and its neural underpinnings.

Methodology/principal findings

We performed one behavioral (N = 23) and two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments (N = 18). In the first fMRI experiment, participants watched photographs displaying painful needle injections, and were asked to evaluate either the sensory or the affective consequences of the

SUBMITTER: Lamm C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2144768 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature