title: Emotional conflict in a model modulates nociceptive processing in an onlooker: a laser-evoked potentials study.
abstract: Observing models displaying facial expressions of pain elicits neural activity in onlookers' neural structures involved in first-hand experience of pain and in monitoring conflicting information. We investigated whether the purported conflict between the pain and its emotional expression in a model modulates cortical responses elicited by nociceptive laser stimuli in an onlooker. Seeing happy facial expressions, incongruent with the perceptual status attributed to the model, determined a significant reduction in the laser-evoked N2 potential. One of the main sources of this response is the anterior cingulate cortex, an area involved in pain perception, empathy for pain and conflict detection. A pre-activation of the anterior cingulate cortex due to the detection of the emotional conflict may, therefore, be responsible for the reduction of nociceptive-related response in the same brain area. Thus, top-down variables, like the appraisal of the others' emotional status, modulate onlookers' nociceptive-related neural activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy. matteo.martini@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martini
authors.forename: Elia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Valentini
authors.forename: Salvatore Maria
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Aglioti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D007834:Lasers; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D010147:Pain Measurement; D058748:Pain Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010812:Physical Stimulation