Article

The brain mechanisms involved in processing another's physical pain have been
extensively studied in recent years. The link between understanding others'
physical pain and emotional suffering is less well understood. Using whole brain
analysis and two separate functional localizers, we characterized the neural
response profiles of narrative scenarios involving physical pain (PP), and
scenarios involving emotional pain (EP) with functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI). Whole brain analyses revealed that PP narratives activated the
Shared Pain network, and that the brain regions responsible for processing EP
overlapped substantially with brain regions involved in Theory of Mind. Region of
interest (ROI) analysis provided a finer-grained view. Some regions responded to
stories involving physical states, regardless of painful content (secondary
sensory regions), some selectively responded to both emotionally and physically
painful events (bilateral anterior thalamus and anterior middle cingulate
cortex), one brain region responded selectively to physical pain (left insula),
and one brain region responded selectively to emotional pain (dorsomedial
prefrontal cortex). These results replicated in two groups of participants given
different explicit tasks. Together, these results clarify the distinct roles of
multiple brain regions in responding to others who are in physical or emotional
pain.
CI - Copyright (c) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS