Bucchioni Giulia, Fossataro Carlotta, Cavallo Andrea, Mouras Harold, Neppi-Modona Marco, Garbarini Francesca
University of Turin, Italy.
Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2016 Nov;28(11):1760-1771. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01003. Epub 2016 Jul 5.
Recent studies show that motor responses similar to those present in one's own pain (freezing effect) occur as a result of observation of pain in others. This finding has been interpreted as the physiological basis of empathy. Alternatively, it can represent the physiological counterpart of an embodiment phenomenon related to the sense of body ownership. We compared the empathy and the ownership hypotheses by manipulating the perspective of the observed hand model receiving pain so that it could be a first-person perspective, the one in which embodiment occurs, or a third-person perspective, the one in which we usually perceive the others. Motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) by TMS over M1 were recorded from first dorsal interosseous muscle, whereas participants observed video clips showing (a) a needle penetrating or (b) a Q-tip touching a hand model, presented either in first-person or in third-person perspective. We found that a pain-specific inhibition of MEP amplitude (a significantly greater MEP reduction in the "pain" compared with the "touch" conditions) only pertains to the first-person perspective, and it is related to the strength of the self-reported embodiment. We interpreted this corticospinal modulation according to an "affective" conception of body ownership, suggesting that the body I feel as my own is the body I care more about.
最近的研究表明，观察他人疼痛时会出现与自身疼痛时类似的运动反应（冻结效应）。这一发现被解释为共情的生理基础。或者，它可以代表与身体所有权感相关的具身现象的生理对应物。我们通过操纵被观察的手部模型接受疼痛的视角来比较共情假设和所有权假设，使其可以是第一人称视角（即具身发生的视角）或第三人称视角（即我们通常感知他人的视角）。通过经颅磁刺激（TMS）在第一背侧骨间肌上记录运动诱发电位（MEP），而参与者观看视频片段，这些片段展示（a）一根针穿刺或（b）一个棉签触碰手部模型，以第一人称或第三人称视角呈现。我们发现，MEP波幅的疼痛特异性抑制（与“触碰”条件相比，“疼痛”条件下MEP显著更大程度的降低）仅与第一人称视角相关，并且它与自我报告的具身强度有关。我们根据身体所有权的“情感”概念来解释这种皮质脊髓调制，表明我感觉属于自己的身体是我更关心的身体。
