title: Response-specific effects of pain observation on motor behavior.
abstract: How does seeing a painful event happening to someone else influence the observer's own motor system? To address this question, we measured simple reaction times following videos showing noxious or innocuous implements contacting corporeal or noncorporeal objects. Key releases in a go/nogo task were speeded, and key presses slowed, after subjects saw a video of a needle pricking a fingertip. No such effect was seen when the observed hand was replaced by a sponge, nor when the needle was replaced by a cotton bud. These findings demonstrate that pain observation modulates the motor system by speeding withdrawal movements and slowing approach movements of the finger. This illustrates a basic mechanism by which visual information about pain is used to facilitate appropriate behavioral responses.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Wales, School of Psychology, Bangor LL57 2AS, UK. pspc46@bangor.ac.uk
authors.forename: India
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Morrison
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Poliakoff
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Downing
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D010146:Pain; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D014796:Visual Perception