TY - JOUR
T1 - Frequency-dependent changes in sensorimotor and pain affective systems induced by empathy for pain
AU - Motoyama, Yoshimasa
AU - Ogata, Katsuya
AU - Hoka, Sumio
AU - Tobimatsu, Shozo
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Kyushu University Project for Interdisciplinary Research (Type A) of Molecular Imaging of Pain. This work was also supported in part by a Grantin-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas MEXT KAKENHI (15H05875 to ST).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Motoyama et al.
PY - 2017/5/29
Y1 - 2017/5/29
N2 - Background: Empathy for pain helps us to understand the pain of others indirectly. To better comprehend the processing of empathic pain, we report the frequency-dependent modulation of cortical oscillations induced by watching movies depicting pain using high-density electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and motor evoked potentials (MEP). Methods: Event-related desynchronization of EEG and MEG was assessed while participants viewed videos of painful (needle) or neutral (cotton swab) situations. The amplitudes of MEPs were also compared between the needle and cotton swab conditions. Results: The degree of suppression in α/β band power was significantly increased, whereas that of γ band power was significantly decreased, in the needle condition compared with the cotton swab condition. EEG revealed that significant differences in α/β band were distributed in the right frontocentral and left parietooccipital regions, whereas significant γ band differences were distributed predominantly over the right hemisphere, which were confirmed by source estimation using MEG. There was a significant positive correlation between the difference in γ power of the two conditions and the visual analog scale subjective rating of aversion, but not in the α/β band. The amplitude of MEPs decreased in the needle condition, which confirmed the inhibition of the primary motor cortex. Conclusion: MEP suppression supports that modulation of cortical oscillations by viewing movies depicting pain involves sensorimotor processing. Our results suggest that α/β oscillations underlie the sensory qualities of others’ pain, whereas the γ band reflects the cognitive aspect. Therefore, α/β and γ band oscillations are differentially involved in empathic pain processing under the condition of motor cortical suppression. Keywords: empathy for pain, pain matrix, neural oscillations, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, motor-evoked potentials.
AB - Background: Empathy for pain helps us to understand the pain of others indirectly. To better comprehend the processing of empathic pain, we report the frequency-dependent modulation of cortical oscillations induced by watching movies depicting pain using high-density electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and motor evoked potentials (MEP). Methods: Event-related desynchronization of EEG and MEG was assessed while participants viewed videos of painful (needle) or neutral (cotton swab) situations. The amplitudes of MEPs were also compared between the needle and cotton swab conditions. Results: The degree of suppression in α/β band power was significantly increased, whereas that of γ band power was significantly decreased, in the needle condition compared with the cotton swab condition. EEG revealed that significant differences in α/β band were distributed in the right frontocentral and left parietooccipital regions, whereas significant γ band differences were distributed predominantly over the right hemisphere, which were confirmed by source estimation using MEG. There was a significant positive correlation between the difference in γ power of the two conditions and the visual analog scale subjective rating of aversion, but not in the α/β band. The amplitude of MEPs decreased in the needle condition, which confirmed the inhibition of the primary motor cortex. Conclusion: MEP suppression supports that modulation of cortical oscillations by viewing movies depicting pain involves sensorimotor processing. Our results suggest that α/β oscillations underlie the sensory qualities of others’ pain, whereas the γ band reflects the cognitive aspect. Therefore, α/β and γ band oscillations are differentially involved in empathic pain processing under the condition of motor cortical suppression. Keywords: empathy for pain, pain matrix, neural oscillations, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, motor-evoked potentials.
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U2 - 10.2147/JPR.S129791
DO - 10.2147/JPR.S129791
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85020048139
SN - 1178-7090
VL - 10
SP - 1317
EP - 1326
JO - Journal of Pain Research
JF - Journal of Pain Research
ER -