A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on pain empathy: investigating the role of visual information and observers' perspective.

ABSTRACT: Empathy relies on brain systems that support the interaction between an observer's mental state and cues about the others' experience. Beyond the core brain areas typically activated in pain empathy studies (insular and anterior cingulate cortices), the diversity of paradigms used may reveal secondary networks that subserve other more specific processes. A coordinate-based meta-analysis of fMRI experiments on pain empathy was conducted to obtain activation likelihood estimates along three factors and seven conditions: visual cues (body parts, facial expressions), visuospatial (first-person, thirdperson), and cognitive (self-, stimuli-, other-oriented tasks) perspectives. The core network was found across cues and perspectives, and common activation was observed in higher-order visual areas

SUBMITTER: Jauniaux J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6847411 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature