Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Behavioural Neuroscience, Centre of Experimental Medicine, Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Sienkiewiczova 1, 813 71, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Brain Topogr. 2019 Nov;32(6):965-976. doi: 10.1007/s10548-019-00738-4. Epub 2019 Nov 8.
Pain is a salient, aversive sensation which motivates avoidance, but also has a strong social signaling function. Numerous studies have shown that regions of the nervous system active in association with first-hand pain are also active in response to the pain of others. When witnessing somatic pain, such as seeing bodies in painful situations, significant activations occur not only in areas related to the processing of negative emotions, but also in neuronal structures engaged in somatosensation and the control of skeletal muscles. These empathy-related sensorimotor activations are selectively reviewed in this article, with a focus on studies using electrophysiological methods and paradigms investigating responses to somatic pain. Convergent evidence from these studies shows that these activations (1) occur at multiple levels of the nervous system, from the spinal cord up to the cerebral cortex, (2) are best conceptualized as activations of a defensive system, in line with the role of pain to protect body from injury, and (3) contribute to establishing a matching of psychological states between the sufferer and the observer, which ultimately supports empathic understanding and motivate prosocial action. Future research should thus focus on how these sensorimotor responses are related to higher-order empathic responses, including affective sharing and emotion regulation, and how this motivates approach-related prosocial behaviors aimed at alleviating the pain and suffering of others.
疼痛是一种明显的、令人不快的感觉，它能激发回避行为，但也有强烈的社会信号功能。许多研究表明，与第一手疼痛相关的神经系统区域在对他人的疼痛做出反应时也是活跃的。当目睹躯体疼痛时，例如看到身体处于痛苦的情境中，不仅与处理负面情绪相关的区域，而且与参与躯体感觉和骨骼肌控制的神经元结构都会发生显著的激活。本文对这些与同理心相关的感觉运动激活进行了选择性综述，重点关注使用电生理学方法和研究躯体疼痛反应的范式的研究。这些研究的一致证据表明，这些激活（1）发生在神经系统的多个水平上，从脊髓到大脑皮层，（2）最好被概念化为防御系统的激活，符合疼痛保护身体免受伤害的作用，（3）有助于在受苦者和观察者之间建立心理状态的匹配，最终支持同理心理解并激发亲社会行为。因此，未来的研究应该集中于这些感觉运动反应与更高阶的同理心反应（包括情感分享和情绪调节）的关系，以及它们如何激发与趋近相关的亲社会行为，旨在减轻他人的痛苦。
