The Relationship Between Pain And Empathy For Pain

Pain(self-pain)is a sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage,and it is influenced by psychological factors,such as attentional and emotional state.Morever,mental process,such as attention and emotion is also influenced by pain.Previous studies on the neural mechanism of pain have found that pain experience can activate a neural network called pain matrix.Most of studies think that the pain matrix is a specific neural network for pain.Social neuroscience research finds that when the individual perceiving pain of others,namely empathy for pain,the pain matrix network is also activated,similar to the region activated during first-hand experience of pain.As a result,a lot of studies suggest that experience of self-pain and empathy for pain share a common neural network.Similar to pain,empathy for pain is also influenced by psychological factors,such as personal attentional and emotional state.Previous studies have focused on the relationship between pain and empathy for pain.It is found that there is effect of mutual promotion between the two,that is,not only the perception of pain can be promoted by empathy for pain,but also the empathy for pain can be promoted by self-pain.The phenomenon of mutual promotion is explained by the theory of shared representation and the perception-action model between pain and empathy for pain,that is,pain and empathy for pain possessing shared representation,named pain matrix.Therefore,pain or empathy for pain primes could activate the network of pain matrix,thereby promoting the perception of the pain or empathy for pain.The explanation bases on the idea that pain matrix is the specialized neural network of pain and empathy for pain.However,other studies have found that the most important function of so called pain matrix is not to process pain or pain related experience,but to detect and react to salient stimuli,in order to make anappropriate preparation,thereby optimally dealing with corresponding events.In general,the more salient priming stimuli is,the stronger neural network of salience activates,thus promoting the individual's perception or response to the upcoming events.Accordingly,we propose that the mutual promotion between pain and empathy for pain may involve the salience of priming stimuli,that is,salient priming stimuli(empathy for pain or pain)can activate the system of detection,then highly arousing individual attention,thereby promoting the personal perception to target stimuli,and is not necessarily related to the priming stimulus and target stimulus whether it is related to pain.Thus,it is worth examining whether this kind of interaction is specific.This study recruited 43 healthy subjects(24 men)to take part in the experiment.This paper explores the questions from the following two aspects:In experiment 1,we study the specificity of effect regarding empathy for pain promotes the perception of self-pain,namely whether empathy for pain only promotes the perception of the modality of pain.We use pain related or unrelated pictures as priming stimuli and utilize the somatosensory and auditory modality as target stimuli.Then,43 healthy participants were asked to value the intensity and unpleasantness of target stimulus after watching a picture,in order to study whether the perception of different modal stimuli are affected by primes of empathy for pain.The results of the experiment showed: 1)similar to previous studies,which empathy for pain can promote the perception of pain;2)empathy for pain could also promote the self perception of high-intensity auditory stimuli;3)under the priming condition of pain related pictures,the rating of unpleasantness regarding the somatosensory and auditory stimuli is higher than pain unrelated pictures.The trend of emotional and sensory dimension is consistent.These results demonstrate that,empathy for pain can promote not only the perception of pain,but also the perception of anditory sense.Accordingly,it is not specific that empathy for pain promotes the perception of self-pain.In experiment 2,we study the specificity of effect regarding self-pain promotes the response of empathy for pain,namely whether only the pain can promotes empathy for pain.We use the stimuli of somatosensory and auditory modality as priming stimuli,and utilize the pictures of pain related or unrelated as target stimuli.Then,43 healthy participants were asked to value the intensity and unpleasantness of target stimulus after perceiving a priming stimuli,in order to study whether the response of empathy for pain are affected by primes of different modal stimuli.The results of the experiment 2 showed: 1)compared to priming stimulus of low-intensity,the priming stimulus of high-intensity can significantly promote the response of pain related pictures;2)under the priming condition of auditory stimulus of high-intensity,the intensity rating of pictures are higher than the condition of low intensity;otherwise,compared with priming stimulus of low-intensity somatosensory,high-intensity somatosensory stimulus can increase the intensity rating of pictures;3)under the condition of high-intensity auditory stimuli,the intensity rating of pictures are higher than low-intensity auditory stimuli;4)compared with the priming stimulus of low-intensity,the unpleasantness rating of pictures is higher under the condition of priming stimulus of high-intensity.The trend of emotional and sensory dimension is consistent.These results demonstrate that,not only can the prime of pain promote the response of pictures,but also the prime of high-intensity auditory stimuli can.Accordingly,it is not specific that pain promotes the response of empathy for pain.According to the results of the two experiments,we think that the effect of mutual promotion between pain and empathy for pain is not specific.That is,the prime of empathy for pain can promote not only the perception of pain,but also the perception of anditory sense.Besides,not only can the prime of pain promotes the response of pictures,but also the prime of high-intensity auditory stimuli can.Accordingly,compared with the theory of shared representation and the perception-action model,combining with the perspective of salient detecting system of pain and threat value of hypothesis regarding empathy for pain is more reasonable to explain the effect of mutual promotion between pain and empathy for pain.