Empathy for social exclusion involves the sensory-discriminative component of pain

Autor(en)
Giovanni Novembre, Marco Zanon, Giorgia Silani
Abstrakt

Recent research has shown that experiencing events that represent a significant threat to social bonds activates a network of brain areas associated with the sensory-discriminative aspects of pain. In the present study, we investigated whether the same brain areas are involved when witnessing social exclusion threats experienced by others. Using a within-subject design, we show that an ecologically valid experience of social exclusion recruits areas coding the somatosensory components of physical pain (posterior insular cortex and secondary somatosensory cortex). Furthermore, we show that this pattern of activation not only holds for directly experienced social pain, but also during empathy for social pain. Finally, we report that subgenual cingulate cortex is the only brain area conjointly active during empathy for physical and social pain. This supports recent theories that affective processing and homeostatic regulation are at the core of empathic responses.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Psychologie der Kognition, Emotion und Methoden, Institut für Klinische und Gesundheitspsychologie
Journal
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Band
10
Seiten
153-164
Anzahl der Seiten
12
ISSN
1749-5016
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsu038
Publikationsdatum
02-2014
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
301401 Hirnforschung
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 10 – Weniger Ungleichheiten
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/7c458207-6999-4834-ac13-e2e6cce40d1d