Singer Tania, Seymour Ben, O'Doherty John, Kaube Holger, Dolan Raymond J, Frith Chris D
Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College of London, 12 Queen Square, WC1N 3AR London, UK.
Science. 2004 Feb 20;303(5661):1157-62. doi: 10.1126/science.1093535.
Our ability to have an experience of another's pain is characteristic of empathy. Using functional imaging, we assessed brain activity while volunteers experienced a painful stimulus and compared it to that elicited when they observed a signal indicating that their loved one--present in the same room--was receiving a similar pain stimulus. Bilateral anterior insula (AI), rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), brainstem, and cerebellum were activated when subjects received pain and also by a signal that a loved one experienced pain. AI and ACC activation correlated with individual empathy scores. Activity in the posterior insula/secondary somatosensory cortex, the sensorimotor cortex (SI/MI), and the caudal ACC was specific to receiving pain. Thus, a neural response in AI and rostral ACC, activated in common for "self" and "other" conditions, suggests that the neural substrate for empathic experience does not involve the entire "pain matrix." We conclude that only that part of the pain network associated with its affective qualities, but not its sensory qualities, mediates empathy.
我们体验他人痛苦的能力是共情的特征。我们利用功能成像技术，在志愿者经历疼痛刺激时评估大脑活动，并将其与他们观察到表明同在一个房间的亲人正在接受类似疼痛刺激的信号时所引发的大脑活动进行比较。当受试者接受疼痛刺激以及收到亲人经历疼痛的信号时，双侧前脑岛（AI）、喙部前扣带回皮质（ACC）、脑干和小脑都会被激活。AI和ACC的激活与个体的共情分数相关。脑岛后部/次级体感皮质、感觉运动皮质（SI/MI）和尾部ACC的活动则特定于接受疼痛时出现。因此，AI和喙部ACC中的神经反应在“自我”和“他人”情况下均被激活，这表明共情体验的神经基础并不涉及整个“疼痛矩阵”。我们得出结论，只有疼痛网络中与其情感特质相关的部分，而非其感觉特质相关部分，介导了共情。
