| Empathy of Pain refers to the perception,judgment and emotional response of the subject of Empathy to the Pain signal sent by the person in Pain.On the one hand,pain empathy allows us to perceive dangerous signals in the environment through the pain of others,and to warn ourselves to take measures to protect ourselves,so as to seek benefits and avoid harm earlier.On the other hand,through other people’s facial pain expressions and behavioral responses after suffering pain as attractive cues,pain empathy promotes individuals to produce comfort,stimulate care and other prosocial behaviors,thus promoting interpersonal close connection.Empathic subjects’ negative emotions such as anger and sadness will reduce the individual’s ability to empathize with pain.The sense of unfairness is a kind of subjective feeling and psychological experience of the real unfair phenomenon in life.When individuals experience unfair events,they often have negative emotions such as anger and frustration.These negative emotional feelings may impair empathic responses to others’ pain.However,few studies have explored the effect of personal unfair perception on pain empathy.Combined with the existing research paradigm and research methods of pain empathy,this study innovated the research methods and adopted the eye-movement-event-related potential(EM-ERP)fusion technique.On pain stimulation of empathy research materials,this study used the pictures(injured scene,neutral pictures pain)and face(pain expression,neutral expression,happy expression)two kinds of material,through comparing the different material induced pain empathy response,find out what kind of material can effectively induce more individual responses the pain of empathy.Two studies and four experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of unfair experience recall priming on pain empathy.Study 1 included two behavioral experiments(Experiment 1 and Experiment 2),and study 2 included two EM-ERP fusion experiments(Experiment 3 and Experiment 4).Experiment 1 used a mixed design consisting of 2 self-recall experiences(unfair experiences,boring experiences)and 2 image types(painful body images,neutral body images).Self-recall experience is an intersubject variable,and picture type is an intra subject variable.A total of 116 healthy adults were selected to explore their level of pain empathy by measuring the pain intensity and self-discomfort of the subjects.After the subjects completed experiment 1,they continued to complete experiment 2.Experiment 2 used a mixed design of 2 self-recall experiences(unfair experience,boring experience)and 3 face types(painful face,neutral face,happy face).The level of pain/pleasure empathy was explored by measuring the participants’ pain/pleasure intensity and self-discomfort/pleasure rating of the content of the pictures.1 experimental results show that the two groups of pain although both groups had no face pain intensity and strength of happy faces score no differences,however,boring memories start group on the degree of self suffered the pain face to feel happy and feel the happy face self rate were significantly higher than that of unfair memories start group.In conclusion,one of the main findings of this study was that unfair experience recall priming decreased individuals’ responses to pain empathy and pleasure empathy.To explore the impact of unfair experience recall on pain empathy,painful faces may be more effective than painful body pictures in evoking emotional responses to others.In Experiment 3 and Experiment 4,we further explored the neurophysiological mechanism of the influence of perceived injustice on the empathic response to pain from pupil,fixation and neuroelectrophysiological indicators.Experiment 3 used a mixed design of 2 self-recall experiences(unfair experiences,boring experiences)×2 image types(pain body images,neutral body images)×3 brain regions(frontal,parietal and occipital lobes).Self-recall experience was an intersubject variable,while picture type and brain wave amplitude of brain region were intra subject variables.Forty-five healthy adults were selected.The subjects were asked to judge whether the type of picture was painful or not.During the process of picture presentation,the subjects’ EEG data and eye movement data were recorded simultaneously.Experiment 4 consisted of a mixed design of 2 self-recall experiences(unfair experiences,boring experiences)×3 image types(painful faces,neutral faces,happy faces)× 3 brain regions(frontal,parietal,and occipital).Subjects in Experiment 3 continued to complete Experiment 4.As the EEG data file of one subject was damaged,there were a total of 44 subjects in Experiment 4.In Experiment3,it was found that the main effect of image type was significant,and both groups of subjects responded faster to painful body pictures than neutral body pictures.Eye movement results found that the boredom priming group had significantly greater pupil dilation when looking at painful body pictures compared to neutral pictures.The ERP results showed that the boring priming group evoked a larger P3 amplitude than the unfair priming group when viewing painful body pictures.In Experiment 4,no significant major effects and interactions were found in behavioral data(accuracy,response time).There was no significant main effect or other interaction between the rate of pupil change and the number of fixation points.In the electrophysiological data,we found that for the unfair priming group,the P2 amplitude of painful faces was larger than that of neutral faces and happy faces;for the boring priming group,there was no significant difference among painful faces,neutral faces and happy faces.In addition,the boring priming group elicited larger N2 amplitude than the neutral priming group when viewing happy pictures,while the unfair priming group had no significant difference in neutral pictures and happy pictures.In conclusion,both painful body pictures and painful face pictures can induce empathic responses in individuals.The results partially support the hypothesis that individuals’ recollection of unfair experiences decreases their ability to empathize with pain.Evidence of supporting outcomes for the main findings:(1)In the behavioral data,the self-distress of the boring memory priming group was significantly higher than that of the unfair memory priming group when viewing the painful face and when viewing the happy face.(2)On the eye movement index,the pupil dilation of the boredom priming group was significantly greater when viewing painful body pictures than when viewing neutral pictures.(3)In terms of electrophysiological indicators,the boring priming group induced greater P3 amplitude than the unfair priming group when viewing painful body pictures.In the emotional face paradigm,the boredom priming group evoked a larger N2 amplitude when viewing happy faces than neutral faces.In addition,the unfair priming group evoked a larger P2 amplitude when viewing painful faces than neutral or happy faces. |
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