Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Zhongshan Road, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
Exp Brain Res. 2022 Jan;240(1):53-69. doi: 10.1007/s00221-021-06279-2. Epub 2021 Dec 2.
Empathy for pain, the ability to share and understand the pain of others, plays an important role in the survival and development of individuals. Previous studies have found that social pain experience affects empathy for pain, but potential gender differences have not been considered. The stage of information processing during which gender is most likely to play a moderating role has yet to be clarified. In the current study, we set up two groups (social pain experience priming: social exclusion group; positive social interaction experience priming: social inclusion group) with a Cyberball game paradigm. We recorded the electrophysiological responses when participants were completing an empathy task. An early frontal P2 and N2 differentiation between painful stimuli and neutral stimuli was observed and females showed larger P2 amplitudes than males. At the P3 stage, in the social exclusion group, males showed similar parietal P3 amplitudes for painful and neutral stimuli, while females showed smaller P3 amplitudes for painful stimuli. At the central-parietal late positive potential (LPP) stage, females in the social inclusion group showed larger LPP amplitudes for painful stimuli than males. Our results suggest that gender plays a significant moderating role in how social pain experience affects empathy for pain during the late cognitive processing stage. Experiment 2 was designed to investigate the cognitive mechanism behind the results for the P3 component in females and the results partially confirmed our speculation. This study provides a neurophysiological basis for the dynamic gender differences in the effects of social pain experience on empathy for pain.
同理心，即理解和分享他人痛苦的能力，在个体的生存和发展中起着重要作用。先前的研究发现，社会痛苦体验会影响对疼痛的同理心，但潜在的性别差异尚未得到考虑。性别最有可能发挥调节作用的信息处理阶段仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们使用 Cyberball 游戏范式设置了两个组（社会排斥体验启动：社会排斥组；积极的社会互动体验启动：社会包容组）。当参与者完成同理心任务时，我们记录了他们的电生理反应。我们观察到痛苦刺激和中性刺激之间在前额出现早期的 P2 和 N2 分化，女性的 P2 振幅大于男性。在 P3 阶段，在社会排斥组中，男性对痛苦刺激和中性刺激的顶区 P3 振幅相似，而女性对痛苦刺激的 P3 振幅较小。在中央顶叶晚期正性电位（LPP）阶段，社会包容组的女性对痛苦刺激的 LPP 振幅大于男性。我们的研究结果表明，性别在社会痛苦体验对疼痛同理心的影响的后期认知加工阶段中起着重要的调节作用。实验 2 旨在探究女性 P3 成分结果背后的认知机制，部分验证了我们的推测。本研究为社会痛苦体验对疼痛同理心影响的动态性别差异提供了神经生理学基础。
