Lian Tao, Jiao Zhibin, Juan Song, Zhang Peng
Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2025 Feb 25;20(1). doi: 10.1093/scan/nsaf003.
Social pain is a common occurrence in interpersonal interactions, yet limited research has explored the neural mechanisms underlying both social pain and social pain empathy. Existing studies often focus on the neural processes of individuals experiencing pain, referred to as "subjects," or those empathizing with them, known as "observers." This study examines the neural mechanisms involved in the process of social pain empathy from the perspective of interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS). To do so, we employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy to simultaneously scan the brains of both subjects and observers in social pain scenarios created using the Cyberball paradigm. The study's findings indicate that in social pain contexts, the IBS among dyads composed of subjects and observers was significantly enhanced in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex compared to nonsocial pain contexts. This brain region is associated with emotion regulation. Furthermore, we found that this enhancement depended on the observers' levels of rejection sensitivity. This study provides the inaugural exploration into the neural mechanisms underlying social pain empathy through the lens of IBS.
社会疼痛在人际互动中很常见，但对社会疼痛及其共情背后的神经机制的研究有限。现有研究通常关注经历疼痛的个体（称为“主体”）或与之共情的个体（称为“观察者”）的神经过程。本研究从人际大脑同步（IBS）的角度探讨社会疼痛共情过程中涉及的神经机制。为此，我们采用功能近红外光谱技术，在使用Cyberball范式创建的社会疼痛场景中同时扫描主体和观察者的大脑。研究结果表明，在社会疼痛情境中，与非社会疼痛情境相比，由主体和观察者组成的二元组之间的IBS在背外侧前额叶皮层显著增强。该脑区与情绪调节有关。此外，我们发现这种增强取决于观察者的拒绝敏感性水平。本研究首次通过IBS的视角对社会疼痛共情背后的神经机制进行了探索。
