Bos Peter A, Montoya Estrella R, Hermans Erno J, Keysers Christian, van Honk Jack
Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Groote Schuur Hospital, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa.
Neuroimage. 2015 Jun;113:217-224. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.03.049. Epub 2015 Mar 25.
Our empathetic abilities allow us to feel the pain of others. This phenomenon of vicarious feeling arises because the neural circuitry of feeling pain and seeing pain in others is shared. The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) is considered a robust facilitator of empathy, as intranasal OXT studies have repeatedly been shown to improve cognitive empathy (e.g. mind reading and emotion recognition). However, OXT has not yet been shown to increase neural empathic responses to pain in others, a core aspect of affective empathy. Effects of OXT on empathy for pain are difficult to predict, because OXT evidently has pain-reducing properties. Accordingly, OXT might paradoxically decrease empathy for pain. Here, using functional neuroimaging we show robust activation in the neural circuitry of pain (insula and sensorimotor regions) when subjects observe pain in others. Crucially, this empathy-related activation in the neural circuitry of pain is strongly reduced after intranasal OXT, specifically in the left insula. OXT on the basis of our neuroimaging data thus remarkably decreases empathy for pain, but further research including behavioral measures is necessary to draw definite conclusions.
我们的共情能力使我们能够感受到他人的痛苦。这种替代性感受现象的出现是因为感受自身疼痛和目睹他人疼痛的神经回路是共享的。神经肽催产素（OXT）被认为是共情的有力促进剂，因为鼻内催产素研究一再表明它能提高认知共情（如读心术和情绪识别）。然而，催产素尚未被证明能增强对他人疼痛的神经共情反应，而这是情感共情的一个核心方面。催产素对疼痛共情的影响难以预测，因为催产素显然具有减轻疼痛的特性。因此，催产素可能会反常地降低对疼痛的共情。在这里，我们使用功能性神经成像技术发现，当受试者观察他人疼痛时，疼痛神经回路（脑岛和感觉运动区域）会有强烈激活。至关重要的是，鼻内注射催产素后，疼痛神经回路中这种与共情相关的激活会大幅减少，特别是在左侧脑岛。基于我们的神经成像数据，催产素显著降低了对疼痛的共情，但还需要包括行为测量在内的进一步研究才能得出明确结论。
