Neural Substrates of Controlled and Automatic Processes Involved in Empathy for Pain

Newswise — Seeing others in pain can automatically engage the brain's empathy systems even if we are not paying attention, according to new research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine presented at the Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping. The investigators showed people images of hands and feet in painful or non-painful situations while scanning the brain using magnetic resonance imaging. Under some conditions the subjects paid attention to whether the situation was painful, while in other conditions they paid attention to other aspects of the images. The results showed that a brain area called the insula responded to pain even if the subject was not paying attention to pain, while another area called the anterior cingulate cortex was important for the voluntary control of empathy for pain. The research provides a better understanding of how the social brain responds to others' pain.

Authors: X Gu, X Liu, KG Guise, TP Naidich, J Fan, Department of Neuroscience, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States