Intracranial human recordings reveal association between neural activity and perceived intensity for the pain of others in the insula.

ABSTRACT: Based on neuroimaging data, the insula is considered important for people to empathize with the pain of others. Here, we present intracranial electroencephalographic (iEEG) recordings and single-cell recordings from the human insula while seven epilepsy patients rated the intensity of a woman's painful experiences seen in short movie clips. Pain had to be deduced from seeing facial expressions or a hand being slapped by a belt. We found activity in the broadband 20-190 Hz range correlated with the trial-by-trial perceived intensity in the insula for both types of stimuli. Within the insula, some locations had activity correlating with perceived intensity for our facial expressions but not for our hand stimuli, others only for our hand but not our face stimuli, and others for both. The timi

SUBMITTER: Soyman E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9678359 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature