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Beyond Sharing Unpleasant Affect—Evidence for Pain-Specific Opioidergic Modulation of Empathy for Pain

It is not known how specific the neural mechanisms underpinning empathy for different domains are. In the present study, we set out to test whether shared neural representations between first-hand pain and empathy for pain are pain-specific or extend to empathy for unpleasant affective touch as well...

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Autores principales: Rütgen, Markus, Wirth, Eva-Maria, Riečanský, Igor, Hummer, Allan, Windischberger, Christian, Petrovic, Predrag, Silani, Giorgia, Lamm, Claus
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8107785/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33454739
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaa385
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author Rütgen, Markus
Wirth, Eva-Maria
Riečanský, Igor
Hummer, Allan
Windischberger, Christian
Petrovic, Predrag
Silani, Giorgia
Lamm, Claus
author_facet Rütgen, Markus
Wirth, Eva-Maria
Riečanský, Igor
Hummer, Allan
Windischberger, Christian
Petrovic, Predrag
Silani, Giorgia
Lamm, Claus
author_sort Rütgen, Markus
collection PubMed
description It is not known how specific the neural mechanisms underpinning empathy for different domains are. In the present study, we set out to test whether shared neural representations between first-hand pain and empathy for pain are pain-specific or extend to empathy for unpleasant affective touch as well. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and psychopharmacological experiments, we investigated if placebo analgesia reduces first-hand and empathic experiences of affective touch, and compared them with the effects on pain. Placebo analgesia also affected the first-hand and empathic experience of unpleasant touch, implicating domain-general effects. However, and in contrast to pain and pain empathy, administering an opioid antagonist did not block these effects. Moreover, placebo analgesia reduced neural activity related to both modalities in the bilateral insular cortex, while it specifically modulated activity in the anterior midcingulate cortex for pain and pain empathy. These findings provide causal evidence that one of the major neurochemical systems for pain regulation is involved in pain empathy, and crucially substantiates the role of shared representations in empathy.
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spelling pubmed-81077852021-05-12 Beyond Sharing Unpleasant Affect—Evidence for Pain-Specific Opioidergic Modulation of Empathy for Pain Rütgen, Markus Wirth, Eva-Maria Riečanský, Igor Hummer, Allan Windischberger, Christian Petrovic, Predrag Silani, Giorgia Lamm, Claus Cereb Cortex Original Article It is not known how specific the neural mechanisms underpinning empathy for different domains are. In the present study, we set out to test whether shared neural representations between first-hand pain and empathy for pain are pain-specific or extend to empathy for unpleasant affective touch as well. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and psychopharmacological experiments, we investigated if placebo analgesia reduces first-hand and empathic experiences of affective touch, and compared them with the effects on pain. Placebo analgesia also affected the first-hand and empathic experience of unpleasant touch, implicating domain-general effects. However, and in contrast to pain and pain empathy, administering an opioid antagonist did not block these effects. Moreover, placebo analgesia reduced neural activity related to both modalities in the bilateral insular cortex, while it specifically modulated activity in the anterior midcingulate cortex for pain and pain empathy. These findings provide causal evidence that one of the major neurochemical systems for pain regulation is involved in pain empathy, and crucially substantiates the role of shared representations in empathy. Oxford University Press 2021-01-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8107785/ /pubmed/33454739 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaa385 Text en © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) ), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Original Article
Rütgen, Markus
Wirth, Eva-Maria
Riečanský, Igor
Hummer, Allan
Windischberger, Christian
Petrovic, Predrag
Silani, Giorgia
Lamm, Claus
Beyond Sharing Unpleasant Affect—Evidence for Pain-Specific Opioidergic Modulation of Empathy for Pain
title Beyond Sharing Unpleasant Affect—Evidence for Pain-Specific Opioidergic Modulation of Empathy for Pain
title_full Beyond Sharing Unpleasant Affect—Evidence for Pain-Specific Opioidergic Modulation of Empathy for Pain
title_fullStr Beyond Sharing Unpleasant Affect—Evidence for Pain-Specific Opioidergic Modulation of Empathy for Pain
title_full_unstemmed Beyond Sharing Unpleasant Affect—Evidence for Pain-Specific Opioidergic Modulation of Empathy for Pain
title_short Beyond Sharing Unpleasant Affect—Evidence for Pain-Specific Opioidergic Modulation of Empathy for Pain
title_sort beyond sharing unpleasant affect—evidence for pain-specific opioidergic modulation of empathy for pain
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8107785/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33454739
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaa385
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