Emotional Primes Modulate the Responses to Others' Pain: an ERP Study

Overview

Journal Exp Brain Res

Specialty Neurology

Date 2012 Jun 15

PMID 22695721

Citations 45

Authors

Jing Meng

Li Hu

Lin Shen

Zhou Yang

Hong Chen

Xiting Huang

Todd Jackson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Previous event-related potential (ERP) and brain imaging studies have suggested observer responses to others' pain are modulated by various bottom-up and top-down factors, including emotional primes. However, the temporal dynamics underlying the impact of emotional primes on responses to others' pain remains poorly understood. In the present study, we explored effects of negative, neutral, and positive emotional priming stimuli on behavioral and cortical responses to visual depictions of others in pain. ERPs were recorded from 20 healthy adults, who were presented with painful and non-painful target pictures following observation of negative, neutral, and positive emotional priming pictures. ERP analyses revealed that relative to non-painful pictures, differential P3 amplitudes for painful pictures were larger followed by negative primes than either neutral or positive primes. There were no significant differential P3 amplitudes for painful pictures relative to non-painful pictures were found followed neutral and positive emotional primes. These results suggest that negative emotional primes strengthen observers' attention toward others' pain. These results support the threat value of pain hypothesis.

Citing Articles

Individuals' Food Preferences can be Influenced by the Music Styles: An ERP Study.

Tian D, Xu Z, Yan H, Tie B, Zhao W, Jing Y Brain Topogr. 2025; 38(2):22.

PMID: 39843707 DOI: 10.1007/s10548-024-01097-5.

Group empathy for pain is stronger than individual empathy for pain in the auditory modality.

Shao M, Qiu Y, Zhang Y, Qian H, Wei Z, Hong M Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2024; 19(1).

PMID: 39417280 PMC: 11523625. DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsae074.

Vicarious facilitation of facial responses to pain: Does the others' expression need to be painful?.

Goller P, Reicherts P, Lautenbacher S, Kunz M Eur J Pain. 2024; 29(1):e4709.

PMID: 39149828 PMC: 11609883. DOI: 10.1002/ejp.4709.

Altered neurophysiological responses during empathy for pain in insomnia: evidence from an EEG study in non-clinical samples.

Li S, He M, Lin L, Chen Q, Ru T, Zhou G J Physiol Anthropol. 2024; 43(1):4.

PMID: 38172965 PMC: 10765821. DOI: 10.1186/s40101-023-00351-2.

Desensitized gamers? Violent video game exposure and empathy for pain in adolescents - an ERP study.

Miedzobrodzka E, van Hooff J, Krabbendam L, Konijn E Soc Neurosci. 2023; 18(6):365-381.

PMID: 37990996 PMC: 10721224. DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2023.2284999.

References

Avenanti A, Bueti D, Galati G, Aglioti S . Transcranial magnetic stimulation highlights the sensorimotor side of empathy for pain. Nat Neurosci. 2005; 8(7):955-60. DOI: 10.1038/nn1481. View

Delplanque S, Lavoie M, Hot P, Silvert L, Sequeira H . Modulation of cognitive processing by emotional valence studied through event-related potentials in humans. Neurosci Lett. 2004; 356(1):1-4. DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2003.10.014. View

Rainville P . Brain mechanisms of pain affect and pain modulation. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2002; 12(2):195-204. DOI: 10.1016/s0959-4388(02)00313-6. View

Meagher M, Arnau R, Rhudy J . Pain and emotion: effects of affective picture modulation. Psychosom Med. 2001; 63(1):79-90. DOI: 10.1097/00006842-200101000-00010. View

BONICA J . Importance of effective pain control. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand Suppl. 1987; 85:1-16. DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-6576.1987.tb02665.x. View

Decety J, Grezes J . The power of simulation: imagining one's own and other's behavior. Brain Res. 2006; 1079(1):4-14. DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2005.12.115. View

Villemure C, Bushnell C . Cognitive modulation of pain: how do attention and emotion influence pain processing?. Pain. 2002; 95(3):195-199. DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3959(02)00007-6. View

Yamada M, Decety J . Unconscious affective processing and empathy: an investigation of subliminal priming on the detection of painful facial expressions. Pain. 2009; 143(1-2):71-5. DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2009.01.028. View

Avenanti A, Minio-Paluello I, Minio Paluello I, Bufalari I, Aglioti S . Stimulus-driven modulation of motor-evoked potentials during observation of others' pain. Neuroimage. 2006; 32(1):316-24. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.03.010. View

10.

Minio-Paluello I, Avenanti A, Aglioti S . Left hemisphere dominance in reading the sensory qualities of others' pain?. Soc Neurosci. 2008; 1(3-4):320-33. DOI: 10.1080/17470910601035954. View

11.

Delorme A, Makeig S . EEGLAB: an open source toolbox for analysis of single-trial EEG dynamics including independent component analysis. J Neurosci Methods. 2004; 134(1):9-21. DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2003.10.009. View

12.

Han S, Fan Y, Mao L . Gender difference in empathy for pain: an electrophysiological investigation. Brain Res. 2008; 1196:85-93. DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2007.12.062. View

13.

Olofsson J, Nordin S, Sequeira H, Polich J . Affective picture processing: an integrative review of ERP findings. Biol Psychol. 2008; 77(3):247-65. PMC: 2443061. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.11.006. View

14.

Morrison I, Lloyd D, di Pellegrino G, Roberts N . Vicarious responses to pain in anterior cingulate cortex: is empathy a multisensory issue?. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2004; 4(2):270-8. DOI: 10.3758/cabn.4.2.270. View

15.

Eccleston C, Crombez G . Pain demands attention: a cognitive-affective model of the interruptive function of pain. Psychol Bull. 1999; 125(3):356-66. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.125.3.356. View

16.

Lang P, Bradley M, Cuthbert B . Emotion, attention, and the startle reflex. Psychol Rev. 1990; 97(3):377-95. View

17.

Decety J, Lamm C . Human empathy through the lens of social neuroscience. ScientificWorldJournal. 2006; 6:1146-63. PMC: 5917291. DOI: 10.1100/tsw.2006.221. View

18.

Avenanti A, Sirigu A, Aglioti S . Racial bias reduces empathic sensorimotor resonance with other-race pain. Curr Biol. 2010; 20(11):1018-22. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2010.03.071. View

19.

Lang P . The emotion probe. Studies of motivation and attention. Am Psychol. 1995; 50(5):372-85. DOI: 10.1037//0003-066x.50.5.372. View

20.

Decety J, Yang C, Cheng Y . Physicians down-regulate their pain empathy response: an event-related brain potential study. Neuroimage. 2010; 50(4):1676-82. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.01.025. View