The Role of Anterior Insula and Anterior Cingulate in Empathy for Pain

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 584-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elia Valentini

The understanding of others' feelings and emotional states is commonly defined by the term empathy. Here, I discuss recent findings regarding the differential contribution of anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortices to this function. For the first time, Gu and colleagues (2010) showed no direct involvement of the anterior cingulate during observation of another's pain and proposed the anterior insula as the main neural substrate for the mental representation of empathy.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laith Alexander ◽  
Hannah Clarke ◽  
Angela Roberts

Subcallosal area 25 is one of the least understood regions of the anterior cingulate cortex, but activity in this area is emerging as a crucial correlate of mood and affective disorder symptomatology. The cortical and subcortical connectivity of area 25 suggests it may act as an interface between the bioregulatory and emotional states that are aberrant in disorders such as depression. However, evidence for such a role is limited because of uncertainty over the functional homologue of area 25 in rodents, which hinders cross-species translation. This emphasizes the need for causal manipulations in monkeys in which area 25, and the prefrontal and cingulate regions in which it is embedded, resemble those of humans more than rodents. In this review, we consider physiological and behavioral evidence from non-pathological and pathological studies in humans and from manipulations of area 25 in monkeys and its putative homologue, the infralimbic cortex (IL), in rodents. We highlight the similarities between area 25 function in monkeys and IL function in rodents with respect to the regulation of reward-driven responses, but also the apparent inconsistencies in the regulation of threat responses, not only between the rodent and monkey literatures, but also within the rodent literature. Overall, we provide evidence for a causal role of area 25 in both the enhanced negative affect and decreased positive affect that is characteristic of affective disorders, and the cardiovascular and endocrine perturbations that accompany these mood changes. We end with a brief consideration of how future studies should be tailored to best translate these findings into the clinic.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1876-1876
Author(s):  
P. Premkumar ◽  
U. Ettinger ◽  
S. Inchley-Mort ◽  
A. Sumich ◽  
S.C. Williams ◽  
...  

A fear of being rejected can cause perceptions of more insecurity and stress in close relationships. Healthy individuals activate the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) when experiencing social rejection, while those who are vulnerable to depression deactivate the dACC presumably in order to down-regulate salience of rejection cues and minimize distress. Schizotypal individuals, characterised by unusual perceptual experiences and/or odd beliefs, are more rejection sensitive than normal. We tested the hypothesis, for the first time, that individuals with high schizotypy also have an altered dACC response to rejection stimuli. Twenty-six healthy individuals, 14 with low schizotypy (LS) and 12 with high schizotypy (HS), viewed depictions of rejection and acceptance and neutral scenes while undergoing functional MRI. Activation maps in LS and HS groups during each image type were compared using SPM5 and their relation to participant mood and subjective ratings of the images was examined. During rejection relative to neutral scenes, LS activated and HS deactivated the bilateral dACC, right superior frontal gyrus and left ventral prefrontal cortex. Across both groups, a temporo-occipito-parieto-cerebellar network was active during rejection, and a left fronto-parietal network during acceptance, relative to neutral scenes, and the bilateral lingual gyrus during rejection relative to acceptance scenes. Our finding of dACC-dorso-ventral PFC activation in LS, but deactivation in HS individuals when perceiving social rejection scenes suggests that HS individuals attach less salience to and distance themselves from such stimuli. This may enable them to cope with their higher-than-normal sensitivity to rejection.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J. Heany ◽  
David Terburg ◽  
Dan J. Stein ◽  
Jack van Honk ◽  
Peter A. Bos

ABSTRACTThere is evidence of testosterone having deteriorating effects on cognitive and affective empathy. However, whether testosterone influences core affective empathy, that is empathy for pain, has not yet been investigated. Therefore, we tested neural responses to witnessing others in pain in a within-subject placebo controlled testosterone administration study. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we provide affirming evidence that the empathy inducing paradigm causes changes in the activity throughout the pain circuitry, including the bilateral insula and anterior cingulate cortex. Administration of testosterone however did not influence these activation patterns in the pain matrix. Testosterone has thus downregulating effects on aspects of empathic behaviour, but based on these data does not seem to influence neural responses during core empathy for pain. This finding gives more insight into the role of testosterone in human empathy.


Author(s):  
Н. Ю. Тарасова ◽  
Б. Ю, Москальов

The purpose of this article is revealing the main methods of synthesizing jazz stylistics with the means of expressiveness of music of the twentieth century in the genre context of the suite. The research methods are based on the use of musical-cultural, comparative-historical, theoretical-analytical and textual approaches. Scientific novelty. For the first time, a camera analysis of suite „1922” by P. Hindemith and „Suite of Sentimentsˮ by Y. Chugunov 1) in the context of genre updating of the suite by elements of jazz style and jazz performances, 2) in the aspect of the interaction of harmonious, accord-tonal, form-forming means of expressiveness of jazz and music of the twentieth century. Conclusions. The interaction of the jazz language with the academic tradition essentially influenced the renovations of the genre in the suites „1922ˮ by P. Hyndemith and „Suite Sentimentsˮ by Y. Chugunov. Jazz influence has contributed to: 1) individualization of the musical decision of the suite, increase of unique expressiveness (skepticism about dance in Hindemith, rich and dynamic palette of lyrical feelings, with contrast of contemplation and mobility in Chugunov); 2) release of the genre character and structure of the cycle from Baroque-classical genre-structural normativity (in the first work, the dance genres of music of the twentieth century, in the second – different emotional states, become decisive); 3) combining the form of a suite cycle (not a simple sequence of plays based on theestablished tempo principle, but a plastic improvisational transition, with the loss of the boundaries of the parts) (in „Suite of Sentiments” by Chugunov), with a through metro rhythm and internal unification with ironic author overtones expressed by harmonic, textured and rhythmic means (in the Suite „1922ˮ by Hindemith); 4) the formative role of rhythm formulas of jazz music (emphasizing weak parts, syncopation, rhythmic brokenness of melody, triple rhythm formulas and unstable formulas with small rhythmic meters), typical jazz performing techniques (fermat, „hangs”, discontinued melodies) and Latin American music of harmonic means (movement by parallel chords, active use of trio sounds, seventh chords, non-chords with alterations), jazz features of intonation (false fingering); 5) application of compositional features of ragtime, swing (cadences, improvisations, repetitions).


2012 ◽  
Vol 108 (7) ◽  
pp. 1805-1807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elia Valentini ◽  
Katharina Koch

Feeling pain and seeing it in others activates largely overlapping neural substrates. A recent study (Corradi-Dell'Acqua C, Hofstetter C, Vuilleumier P. J Neurosci 31: 17996–18006, 2011) for the first time raises the question of whether shared neural activations specifically code pain-related contents or merely their negative-aversive implication. The authors conclude that mid-insula and mid-cingulate share information specific to the presence of pain, whereas anterior insula shares information about its aversive content. We suggest that, together with valence and arousal, the control of saliency and threat may have an important heuristic potential in the study of empathy for pain.


Crisis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danica W. Y. Liu ◽  
A. Kate Fairweather-Schmidt ◽  
Richard Burns ◽  
Rachel M. Roberts ◽  
Kaarin J. Anstey

Abstract. Background: Little is known about the role of resilience in the likelihood of suicidal ideation (SI) over time. Aims: We examined the association between resilience and SI in a young-adult cohort over 4 years. Our objectives were to determine whether resilience was associated with SI at follow-up or, conversely, whether SI was associated with lowered resilience at follow-up. Method: Participants were selected from the Personality and Total Health (PATH) Through Life Project from Canberra and Queanbeyan, Australia, aged 28–32 years at the first time point and 32–36 at the second. Multinomial, linear, and binary regression analyses explored the association between resilience and SI over two time points. Models were adjusted for suicidality risk factors. Results: While unadjusted analyses identified associations between resilience and SI, these effects were fully explained by the inclusion of other suicidality risk factors. Conclusion: Despite strong cross-sectional associations, resilience and SI appear to be unrelated in a longitudinal context, once risk/resilience factors are controlled for. As independent indicators of psychological well-being, suicidality and resilience are essential if current status is to be captured. However, the addition of other factors (e.g., support, mastery) makes this association tenuous. Consequently, resilience per se may not be protective of SI.


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