Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
Department of Neurology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany; Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Psychiatry Res. 2015 Oct 30;234(1):57-65. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.08.006. Epub 2015 Aug 20.
Showing empathy is crucial for social functioning and empathy is related to group membership. The aim of the current study was to investigate the influence of experimentally generated groups on empathy for pain in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm. Thirty healthy participants underwent a minimal group paradigm to create two groups. While BOLD contrast was measured using fMRI, subjects were instructed to empathize with ingroup and outgroup members, who were depicted in a picture paradigm of painful and neutral situations. Behavioral measure of state empathy was measured using a visual analog scale. Furthermore, self-reported trait empathy measures were obtained. Repeated-measures ANOVAs were conducted for fMRI and behavioral data. In addition to a main effect of pain in pain-related areas, a main effect of group in areas belonging to the visual cortex was found. Although there was no ingroup bias for empathy ratings, subjects showed altered neural activation in regions of the right fusiform gyrus, the cerebellum, the hippocampal and amygdala region during the pain×group interaction. Activation in the preceding structures, revealed by the interaction of pain by group, suggests that activation in the pallidum might reflect specific empathy for pain-related regulation processes.
表现出同理心对于社交功能至关重要，而同理心与群体归属有关。本研究的目的是在功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 范式中研究实验产生的群体对疼痛同理心的影响。30 名健康参与者接受了最小群体范式以创建两个群体。在使用 fMRI 测量 BOLD 对比的同时，要求受试者在描绘痛苦和中性情境的图片范式中对同组和外组成员表示同理心。使用视觉模拟量表测量状态同理心的行为测量。此外，还获得了自我报告的特质同理心测量。对 fMRI 和行为数据进行重复测量方差分析。除了与疼痛相关区域的疼痛的主要效应外，还发现了属于视觉皮层的区域的组的主要效应。尽管同理心评分没有同组偏见，但在疼痛×组相互作用期间，受试者在右侧梭状回、小脑、海马和杏仁核区域显示出改变的神经激活。由组的疼痛相互作用揭示的前面结构的激活表明，苍白球的激活可能反映了对与疼痛相关的调节过程的特定同理心。
