Altruistic behaviors relieve physical pain

Engaging in altruistic behaviors is costly, but it contributes to the health and well-being of the performer of such behaviors. The present research offers a take on how this paradox can be understood. Across 2 pilot studies and 3 experiments, we showed a pain-relieving effect of performing altruistic behaviors. Acting altruistically relieved not only acutely induced physical pain among healthy adults but also chronic pain among cancer patients. Using functional MRI, we found that after individuals performed altruistic actions brain activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula in response to a painful shock was significantly reduced. This reduced pain-induced activation in the right insula was mediated by the neural activity in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), while the activation of the VMPFC was positively correlated with the performer’s experienced meaningfulness from his or her altruistic behavior. Our findings suggest that incurring personal costs to help others may buffer the performers from unpleasant conditions.

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Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain

Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0956797610374741 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 21 (7) ◽

pp. 931-937 ◽

Cited By ~ 250

Author(s):

C. Nathan DeWall ◽

Geoff MacDonald ◽

Gregory D. Webster ◽

Carrie L. Masten ◽

Roy F. Baumeister ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Activity ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Daily Basis ◽

Social Rejection ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Physical Pain ◽

Social Pain ◽

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Pain, whether caused by physical injury or social rejection, is an inevitable part of life. These two types of pain—physical and social—may rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms that register pain-related affect. To the extent that these pain processes overlap, acetaminophen, a physical pain suppressant that acts through central (rather than peripheral) neural mechanisms, may also reduce behavioral and neural responses to social rejection. In two experiments, participants took acetaminophen or placebo daily for 3 weeks. Doses of acetaminophen reduced reports of social pain on a daily basis (Experiment 1). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure participants’ brain activity (Experiment 2), and found that acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions previously associated with distress caused by social pain and the affective component of physical pain (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula). Thus, acetaminophen reduces behavioral and neural responses associated with the pain of social rejection, demonstrating substantial overlap between social and physical pain.

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Impaired subjective well-being in schizophrenia is associated with reduced anterior cingulate activity during reward processing

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291714001718 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 589-600 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

J. Gilleen ◽

S. S. Shergill ◽

S. Kapur

Keyword(s):

Brain Activity ◽

Well Being ◽

Reward Processing ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Whole Brain ◽

Reward Anticipation ◽

Reward Network ◽

Healthy Participants

BackgroundPatients with schizophrenia have substantially reduced subjective well-being (SW) compared to healthy individuals. It has been suggested that diminished SW may be related to deficits in the neural processing of reward but this has not been shown directly. We hypothesized that, in schizophrenia, lower SW would be associated with attenuated reward-related activation in the reward network.MethodTwenty patients with schizophrenia with a range of SW underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reward task. The brain activity underlying reward anticipation and outcome in schizophrenia was examined and compared to that of 12 healthy participants using a full factorial analysis. Region of interest (ROI) analyses of areas within the reward network and whole-brain analyses were conducted to reveal neural correlates of SW.ResultsReward-related neural activity in schizophrenia was not significantly different from that of healthy participants; however, the patients with schizophrenia showed significantly diminished SW. Both ROI and whole-brain analyses confirmed that SW scores in the patients correlated significantly with activity, specifically in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), during both reward anticipation and reward outcome. This association was not seen in the healthy participants.ConclusionsIn patients with schizophrenia, reduced activation of the dACC during multiple aspects of reward processing is associated with lower SW. As the dACC has been widely linked to coupling of reward and action, and the link to SW is apparent over anticipation and outcome, these findings suggest that SW deficits in schizophrenia may be attributable to reduced integration of environmental rewarding cues, motivated behaviour and reward outcome.

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Forebrain neural patterns associated with sex differences in autonomic and cardiovascular function during baroreceptor unloading

AJP Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology ◽

10.1152/ajpregu.00366.2006 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 292 (2) ◽

pp. R715-R722 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

D. S. Kimmerly ◽

S. Wong ◽

R. Menon ◽

J. K. Shoemaker

Keyword(s):

Lower Body Negative Pressure ◽

Muscle Sympathetic Nerve Activity ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Cardiovascular Responses ◽

Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Bold Signal ◽

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Ventral Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

The Right

Generally, women demonstrate smaller autonomic and cardiovascular reactions to stress, compared with men. The mechanism of this sex-dependent difference is unknown, although reduced baroreflex sensitivity may be involved. Recently, we identified a cortical network associated with autonomic cardiovascular responses to baroreceptor unloading in men. The current investigation examined whether differences in the neural activity patterns within this network were related to sex-related physiological responses to lower body negative pressure (LBNP, 5, 15, and 35 mmHg). Forebrain activity in healthy men and women ( n = 8 each) was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging with blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) contrast. Stroke volume (SV), heart rate (HR), and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) were collected on a separate day. Men had larger decreases in SV than women ( P < 0.01) during 35 mmHg LBNP only. At 35 mmHg LBNP, HR increased more in males then females (9 ± 1 beats/min vs. 4 ± 1 beats/min, P < 0.05). Compared with women, increases in total MSNA were similar at 15 mmHg LBNP but greater during 35 mmHg LBNP in men [1,067 ± 123 vs. 658 ± 103 arbitrary units (au), P < 0.05]. BOLD signal changes ( P < 0.005, uncorrected) were identified within discrete forebrain regions associated with these sex-specific HR and MSNA responses. Men had larger increases in BOLD signal within the right insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex than women. Furthermore, men demonstrated greater BOLD signal reductions in the right amygdala, left insula, ventral anterior cingulate, and ventral medial prefrontal cortex vs. women. The greater changes in forebrain activity in men vs. women may have contributed to the elevated HR and sympathetic responses observed in men during 35 mmHg LBNP.

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Brain reactivity to humorous films is affected by insomnia

SLEEP ◽

10.1093/sleep/zsab081 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ernesto Sanz-Arigita ◽

Yannick Daviaux ◽

Marc Joliot ◽

Bixente Dilharreguy ◽

Jean-Arthur Micoulaud-Franchi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotional Reactivity ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Brain Network ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Neural Representation ◽

Cingulate Gyrus ◽

Anterior Cingulate Gyrus ◽

Left Caudate ◽

Neural Reactivity ◽

The Right

Abstract Study objectives Emotional reactivity to negative stimuli has been investigated in insomnia, but little is known about emotional reactivity to positive stimuli and its neural representation. Methods We used 3T fMRI to determine neural reactivity during the presentation of standardized short, 10-40-s, humorous films in insomnia patients (n=20, 18 females, aged 27.7 +/- 8.6 years) and age-matched individuals without insomnia (n=20, 19 females, aged 26.7 +/- 7.0 years), and assessed humour ratings through a visual analogue scale (VAS). Seed-based functional connectivity was analysed for left and right amygdala networks: group-level mixed-effects analysis (FLAME; FSL) was used to compare amygdala connectivity maps between groups. Results fMRI seed-based analysis of the amygdala revealed stronger neural reactivity in insomnia patients than in controls in several brain network clusters within the reward brain network, without humour rating differences between groups (p = 0.6). For left amygdala connectivity, cluster maxima were in the left caudate (Z=3.88), left putamen (Z=3.79) and left anterior cingulate gyrus (Z=4.11), while for right amygdala connectivity, cluster maxima were in the left caudate (Z=4.05), right insula (Z=3.83) and left anterior cingulate gyrus (Z=4.29). Cluster maxima of the right amygdala network were correlated with hyperarousal scores in insomnia patients only. Conclusions Presentation of humorous films leads to increased brain activity in the neural reward network for insomnia patients compared to controls, related to hyperarousal features in insomnia patients, in the absence of humor rating group differences. These novel findings may benefit insomnia treatment interventions.

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Cerebral Activity Changes in Different Traditional Chinese Medicine Patterns of Psychogenic Erectile Dysfunction Patients

Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine ◽

10.1155/2015/503536 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2015 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Qi Liu ◽

Peihai Zhang ◽

Junjie Pan ◽

Zhengjie Li ◽

Jixin Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Erectile Dysfunction ◽

Chinese Medicine ◽

Traditional Chinese Medicine ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Cingulate Cortex ◽

Posterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Parahippocampal Gyrus ◽

Cerebral Activity ◽

The Right

Background.Pattern differentiation is the foundation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED). This study aims to investigate the differences in cerebral activity in ED patients with different TCM patterns.Methods.27 psychogenic ED patients and 27 healthy subjects (HS) were enrolled in this study. Each participant underwent an fMRI scan in resting state. The fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) was used to detect the brain activity changes in ED patients with different patterns.Results.Compared to HS, ED patients showed an increased cerebral activity in bilateral cerebellum, insula, globus pallidus, parahippocampal gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and middle cingulate cortex (MCC). Compared to the patients with liver-qi stagnation and spleen deficiency pattern (LSSDP), the patients with kidney-yang deficiency pattern (KDP) showed an increased activity in bilateral brainstem, cerebellum, hippocampus, and the right insula, thalamus, MCC, and a decreased activity in bilateral putamen, medial frontal gyrus, temporal pole, and the right caudate nucleus, OFC, anterior cingulate cortex, and posterior cingulate cortex (P<0.005).Conclusions.The ED patients with different TCM patterns showed different brain activities. The differences in cerebral activity between LSSDP and KDP were mainly in the emotion-related regions, including prefrontal cortex and cingulated cortex.

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Neuronal Substrates Underlying Performance Variability in Well-Trained Skillful Motor Task in Humans

Neural Plasticity ◽

10.1155/2016/1245259 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Nobuaki Mizuguchi ◽

Shintaro Uehara ◽

Satoshi Hirose ◽

Shinji Yamamoto ◽

Eiichi Naito

Keyword(s):

Task Performance ◽

Motor Skill ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Motor Task ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Cerebellar Hemisphere ◽

Intensive Training ◽

Performance Variability ◽

The Right

Motor performance fluctuates trial by trial even in a well-trained motor skill. Here we show neural substrates underlying such behavioral fluctuation in humans. We first scanned brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging while healthy participants repeatedly performed a 10 s skillful sequential finger-tapping task. Before starting the experiment, the participants had completed intensive training. We evaluated task performance per trial (number of correct sequences in 10 s) and depicted brain regions where the activity changes in association with the fluctuation of the task performance across trials. We found that the activity in a broader range of frontoparietocerebellar network, including the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), anterior cingulate and anterior insular cortices, and left cerebellar hemisphere, was negatively correlated with the task performance. We further showed in another transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) experiment that task performance deteriorated, when we applied anodal tDCS to the right DLPFC. These results indicate that fluctuation of brain activity in the nonmotor frontoparietocerebellar network may underlie trial-by-trial performance variability even in a well-trained motor skill, and its neuromodulation with tDCS may affect the task performance.

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Medial Cortical Structures Mediate Implicit Trustworthiness Judgments about Kin Faces, but Not Familiar Faces: A Brief Report

Psych ◽

10.3390/psych1010037 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 482-490 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Steven M. Platek ◽

Judson C. Hendry

Keyword(s):

Right Hemisphere ◽

Kin Recognition ◽

Insular Cortex ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

The Self ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Facial Stimuli ◽

The Right ◽

Processing Network

Human kin recognition activates substrates of the extended facial processing network, notably the right-hemisphere structures involved in self-face recognition and posterior medial cortical substrates. To understand the mechanisms underlying prosociality toward kin faces in comparison to other familiar faces, we investigated the neural correlates of implicit trustworthiness ratings to faces of actual kin and personal friends, controlling for activation to distracter faces. When controlling for activation associated with unknown faces, trustworthiness ratings of faces of kin, compared to friends, were associated with increased activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate, and precuneous. On the other hand, trustworthiness ratings of friend faces, relative to kin faces, were associated with the lateral occipital gyrus and insular cortex. Trustworthiness ratings for unknown faces were only associated with activation in the fusiform gyrus. These findings suggest that we should employ medial cortical substrates known to be part of the self-other network when making implicit social judgements about kin, but not other classes of facial stimuli.

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Shared and unique neural circuitry underlying temporally unpredictable threat and reward processing

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience ◽

10.1093/scan/nsab006 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Milena Radoman ◽

Lynne Lieberman ◽

Jagan Jimmy ◽

Stephanie M Gorka

Keyword(s):

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Neural Circuitry ◽

Reward Processing ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Neural Systems ◽

Imaging Data ◽

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Posterior Insula ◽

Middle Occipital Gyrus ◽

The Right

Abstract Temporally unpredictable stimuli influence behavior across species, as previously demonstrated for sequences of simple threats and rewards with fixed or variable onset. Neuroimaging studies have identified a specific frontolimbic circuit that may become engaged during the anticipation of temporally unpredictable threat (U-threat). However, the neural mechanisms underlying processing of temporally unpredictable reward (U-reward) are incompletely understood. It is also unclear whether these processes are mediated by overlapping or distinct neural systems. These knowledge gaps are noteworthy given that disruptions within these neural systems may lead to maladaptive response to uncertainty. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging data from a sample of 159 young adults, we showed that anticipation of both U-threat and U-reward elicited activation in the right anterior insula, right ventral anterior nucleus of the thalamus and right inferior frontal gyrus. U-threat also activated the right posterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, relative to U-reward. In contrast, U-reward elicited activation in the right fusiform and left middle occipital gyrus, relative to U-threat. Although there is some overlap in the neural circuitry underlying anticipation of U-threat and U-reward, these processes appear to be largely mediated by distinct circuits. Future studies are needed to corroborate and extend these preliminary findings.

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Effective Connectivity of the Hippocampus Can Differentiate Patients with Schizophrenia from Healthy Controls: A Spectral DCM Approach

Brain Topography ◽

10.1007/s10548-021-00868-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Lavinia Carmen Uscătescu ◽

Lisa Kronbichler ◽

Renate Stelzig-Schöler ◽

Brandy-Gale Pearce ◽

Sarah Said-Yürekli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Negative Symptoms ◽

Effective Connectivity ◽

Anterior Insula ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Frontal Eye Fields ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Left Hippocampus ◽

Male Patients ◽

The Right

AbstractWe applied spectral dynamic causal modelling (Friston et al. in Neuroimage 94:396–407. 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.12.009, 2014) to analyze the effective connectivity differences between the nodes of three resting state networks (i.e. default mode network, salience network and dorsal attention network) in a dataset of 31 male healthy controls (HC) and 25 male patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (SZ). Patients showed increased directed connectivity from the left hippocampus (LHC) to the: dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (DACC), right anterior insula (RAI), left frontal eye fields and the bilateral inferior parietal sulcus (LIPS & RIPS), as well as increased connectivity from the right hippocampus (RHC) to the: bilateral anterior insula (LAI & RAI), right frontal eye fields and RIPS. In SZ, negative symptoms predicted the connectivity strengths from the LHC to: the DACC, the left inferior parietal sulcus (LIPAR) and the RHC, while positive symptoms predicted the connectivity strengths from the LHC to the LIPAR and from the RHC to the LHC. These results reinforce the crucial role of hippocampus dysconnectivity in SZ pathology and its potential as a biomarker of disease severity.

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The right thalamic glutamate level correlates with functional connectivity with right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex/middle occipital gyrus in unmedicated obsessive–compulsive disorder: A combined fMRI and 1H-MRS study

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1177/0004867418806370 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 53 (3) ◽

pp. 207-218 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Yongjun Chen ◽

Ziyu Meng ◽

Zongfeng Zhang ◽

Yajing Zhu ◽

Rui Gao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Magnetic Resonance ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Data Acquisition ◽

Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Resting State ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Obsessive Compulsive ◽

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Middle Occipital Gyrus ◽

The Right

Objective: The imbalance in neurotransmitter and neuronal metabolite concentration within cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) circuit contributes to obsessive–compulsive disorder’s (OCD) onset. Previous studies showed that glutamate mediated upregulation of resting-state activity in healthy people. However, there have been few studies investigating the correlational features between functional and neurochemical alterations in OCD. Methods: We utilize a combined resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) approach to investigate the altered functional connectivity (FC) in association with glutamatergic dysfunction in OCD pathophysiology. Three regions of interest are investigated, i.e., medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral thalamus, for seed-based whole-brain FC analysis as well as MRS data acquisition. There are 23 unmedicated adult OCD patients and 23 healthy controls recruited for brain FC analysis. Among them, 12 OCD and 8 controls are performed MRS data acquisition. Results: Besides abnormal FC within CSTC circuit, we also find altered FCs in large-scale networks outside CSTC circuit, including occipital area and limbic and motor systems. The decreased FC between right thalamus and right middle occipital gyrus (MOG) is correlated with glutamatergic signal within right thalamus in OCD patients. Moreover, the FC between right thalamus and right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is associated with glutamate level in right thalamus, specifically in patient’s group. Finally, the FC between right thalamus and right MOG is correlated with patient’s Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) compulsion and total scores, while the right thalamic glutamatergic signal is associated with YBOCS-compulsion score. Conclusion: Our findings showed that the coupled intrinsic functional–biochemical alterations existed both within CSTC circuit and from CSTC to occipital lobe in OCD pathophysiology.

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