Intracranial EEG signals disentangle multi-areal neural dynamics of vicarious pain perception.
Huixin TanXiaoyu ZengJun NiKun LiangCuiping XuYanyang ZhangJiaxin WangZizhou LiJiaxin YangChunlei HanYuan GaoXinguang YuShihui HanFangang MengYina MaPublished in: Nature communications (2024)
Empathy enables understanding and sharing of others' feelings. Human neuroimaging studies have identified critical brain regions supporting empathy for pain, including the anterior insula (AI), anterior cingulate (ACC), amygdala, and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). However, to date, the precise spatio-temporal profiles of empathic neural responses and inter-regional communications remain elusive. Here, using intracranial electroencephalography, we investigated electrophysiological signatures of vicarious pain perception. Others' pain perception induced early increases in high-gamma activity in IFG, beta power increases in ACC, but decreased beta power in AI and amygdala. Vicarious pain perception also altered the beta-band-coordinated coupling between ACC, AI, and amygdala, as well as increased modulation of IFG high-gamma amplitudes by beta phases of amygdala/AI/ACC. We identified a necessary combination of neural features for decoding vicarious pain perception. These spatio-temporally specific regional activities and inter-regional interactions within the empathy network suggest a neurodynamic model of human pain empathy.
Keyphrases
- chronic pain
- functional connectivity
- pain management
- resting state
- neuropathic pain
- artificial intelligence
- endothelial cells
- multiple sclerosis
- spinal cord injury
- social media
- brain injury
- spinal cord
- deep learning
- high glucose
- stress induced
- mass spectrometry
- white matter
- room temperature
- subarachnoid hemorrhage
- electron transfer