Zhang Ming, Lin Xiaomin, Zhi Yongkang, Mu Yan, Kong Yazhuo
CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
iScience. 2024 Jan 18;27(2):108951. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.108951. eCollection 2024 Feb 16.
Pain is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that encompasses both physical pain experienced physiologically and social pain experienced emotionally. The interactions between them are thought to lead to increased pain load. However, the effect of social pain on physical pain perception during interactions remains unclear. Four experiments were conducted merging physical and social pains to examine the behavioral pattern and neural mechanism of the effect of social pain on physical pain perception. Seemingly paradoxical effects of social pain were observed, which both facilitated and inhibited physical pain perception under different attention orientations. Brain imaging revealed that the posterior insula encoded the facilitatory effect, whereas the frontal pole engaged in the inhibitory effect. At a higher level, the thalamus further modulated both processes, playing a switch-like role under different concern statuses of social pain. These results provide direct evidence for the dual-pathway mechanism of the effect of social pain on physical pain.
疼痛是一种多维度现象，它既包括生理上体验到的身体疼痛，也包括情感上体验到的社会疼痛。它们之间的相互作用被认为会导致疼痛负荷增加。然而，社交互动过程中社会疼痛对身体疼痛感知的影响仍不明确。进行了四项实验，将身体疼痛和社会疼痛结合起来，以研究社会疼痛对身体疼痛感知影响的行为模式和神经机制。观察到了社会疼痛看似矛盾的效应，即在不同的注意力取向条件下，它既促进又抑制身体疼痛感知。脑成像显示，脑岛后部编码了促进效应，而额极参与了抑制效应。在更高层面上，丘脑进一步调节这两个过程，在社会疼痛的不同关注状态下发挥类似开关的作用。这些结果为社会疼痛对身体疼痛影响的双通路机制提供了直接证据。
