Hu Yang, Cui Zhuoya, Fan Mingxia, Pei Yilai, Wang Zhaoxin
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Ministry of Education, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Shanghai, China.
Shanghai Key Laboratory of MRI, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2018 Jan 4;11:640. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00640. eCollection 2017.
The questions whether and how empathy for pain can be modulated by acute alcohol intoxication in the non-dependent population remain unanswered. To address these questions, a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject study design was adopted in this study, in which healthy social drinkers were asked to complete a pain-judgment task using pictures depicting others' body parts in painful or non-painful situations during fMRI scanning, either under the influence of alcohol intoxication or placebo conditions. Empathic neural activity for pain was reduced by alcohol intoxication only in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). More interestingly, we observed that empathic neural activity for pain in the right anterior insula (rAI) was significantly correlated with trait empathy only after alcohol intoxication, along with impaired functional connectivity between the rAI and the fronto-parietal attention network. Our results reveal that alcohol intoxication not only inhibits empathic neural responses for pain but also leads to trait empathy inflation, possibly via impaired top-down attentional control. These findings help to explain the neural mechanism underlying alcohol-related social problems.
在非依赖人群中，疼痛共情是否以及如何会受到急性酒精中毒的调节，这些问题仍未得到解答。为了解决这些问题，本研究采用了双盲、安慰剂对照的受试者内研究设计，让健康的社交饮酒者在功能磁共振成像扫描期间，在酒精中毒或安慰剂条件的影响下，使用描绘他人身体部位处于疼痛或非疼痛状态的图片来完成一项疼痛判断任务。仅在背侧前扣带回皮质（dACC）中，酒精中毒会降低对疼痛的共情神经活动。更有趣的是，我们观察到，仅在酒精中毒后，右侧前脑岛（rAI）中对疼痛的共情神经活动与特质共情显著相关，同时rAI与额顶叶注意网络之间的功能连接受损。我们的结果表明，酒精中毒不仅会抑制对疼痛的共情神经反应，还可能通过自上而下的注意力控制受损导致特质共情增强。这些发现有助于解释与酒精相关的社会问题背后的神经机制。
