Somatic and vicarious pain are represented by dissociable multivariate brain patterns
Somatic and vicarious pain are represented by dissociable multivariate brain patterns
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DOI：
10.7554/elife.15166
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发表时间：
2016-06-14
期刊：
影响因子：
7.7
通讯作者：
Wager, Tor D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Krishnan, Anjali;Woo, Choong-Wan;Wager, Tor D.
理解人类如何表达他人的痛苦，对于理解亲社会行为至关重要。“共享经验”理论提出了躯体和代用疼痛的共同大脑表征，但其他证据表明，体验他人的痛苦需要专门的回路。结合功能神经成像和多变量模式分析，我们确定了可分离的模式，可以预测样本外个体的躯体(高与低：100%)和替代(高与低：100%)疼痛强度。关键的是，每一种模式在预测另一种经验时都是偶然的，展示了两种模式的单独可修改性。躯体抽动(上肢和下肢：两种情况下准确率分别为93%)也是独特的，分别位于躯体感觉和精神化相关的躯体和代替性疼痛环路。另外两项研究证明了躯体疼痛模式(最初是在热痛的基础上发展起来的)对机械痛和电痛的概括性，也证明了躯体/代用品分离的可复制性。这些发现提示了感受他人疼痛的潜在限制的可能机制，并为研究疼痛移情提供了新的、更具体的大脑靶点。
Understanding how humans represent others' pain is critical for understanding pro-social behavior. 'Shared experience' theories propose common brain representations for somatic and vicarious pain, but other evidence suggests that specialized circuits are required to experience others' suffering. Combining functional neuroimaging with multivariate pattern analyses, we identified dissociable patterns that predicted somatic (high versus low: 100%) and vicarious (high versus low: 100%) pain intensity in out-of-sample individuals. Critically, each pattern was at chance in predicting the other experience, demonstrating separate modifiability of both patterns. Somatotopy (upper versus lower limb: 93% accuracy for both conditions) was also distinct, located in somatosensory versus mentalizing-related circuits for somatic and vicarious pain, respectively. Two additional studies demonstrated the generalizability of the somatic pain pattern (which was originally developed on thermal pain) to mechanical and electrical pain, and also demonstrated the replicability of the somatic/vicarious dissociation. These findings suggest possible mechanisms underlying limitations in feeling others' pain, and present new, more specific, brain targets for studying pain empathy.