Background Empathy for pain is a complex phenomenon incorporating sensory, cognitive
and affective processes. Functional neuroimaging studies indicate a rich network of brain …

Pain is a salient, aversive sensation which motivates avoidance, but also has a strong social
signaling function. Numerous studies have shown that regions of the nervous system active …

Empathy relies on brain systems that support the interaction between an observer's mental
state and cues about the others' experience. Beyond the core brain areas typically activated …

Pain empathy can be evoked by multiple cues, particularly observation of acute pain
inflictions or facial expressions of pain. Previous studies suggest that these cues commonly …

Empathy has received considerable attention from the field of cognitive and social
neuroscience. A significant portion of these studies used the event-related potential (ERP) …

Perceiving others in pain generally leads to empathic concern, consisting of both emotional
and cognitive processes. Empathy deficits have been considered as an element contributing …

Recent studies have shown that perceiving the pain of others activates brain regions in the
observer associated with both somatosensory and affective-motivational aspects of pain …

Individual differences in pain sensitivity and reactivity are well recognized but the underlying
mechanisms are likely to be diverse. The phenomenon of stress-induced analgesia is well …

The nature of interactions between observing pain in others (other-pain) and subjective pain
perception (self-pain) has been debated. To test whether other-pain and self-pain primes …

The amygdala has emerged as a key player in the emotional response to pain and pain
modulation. The lateral and capsular regions of the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) …