Producer: Popular Science China
Producer: Lv Xuejing (Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Producer: Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences
We will be bitter about the tragic life of the protagonist in the novel, we will silently cry for the love of others in the movie theater, and we will sigh "I feel pain" when we see passers-by fall down... I know that I have not experienced all this, but why do I feel that "pain is in your body, pain in my heart"? This experience of feeling pain from others is not uncommon, and it has a professional name: pain empathy.
Pain empathy (Image source: NetEase)
The neural mechanism of "pain in your body, pain in my heart"
Empathy refers to the sensitivity of individuals to perceive the psychological state of others, including being infected by the state of others, experiencing the same state as others, assessing the causes of the state, understanding the thoughts of others and a series of psychological processes, including both simple and primary emotional imitations and more complex and advanced transpositional thinking.
Pain empathy is a typical manifestation of empathy, which refers to an individual's perception, judgment, and emotional response to the pain experienced by others. That is, when others suffer, we have the ability to "empathize" with their pain and grief.
So how did this feeling of "others hurt me also hurt" come about? What are the similarities and differences between this pain and the pain that happens to us?
The classic empathy sharing representation model states that the observer achieves empathy with others by invoking the same neural representations as the observed. In this process, mirror neurons may be the basis for us to imitate the actions of others and understand their emotions.
Mirror neurons may be the basis for us to imitate the actions of others and understand their emotions (Image: Veer Gallery)
To take one of the most common examples: when others laugh, we laugh involuntarily ourselves, and sometimes we can't even stop. This is mainly because when we observe the expressions and movements of others, the mirror mechanism in the brain allows us to experience similar neurophysiological responses, experience similar feelings, and thus produce similar emotional states.
Similarly, observing the pain suffered by others is very similar to the neural response patterns that arise when we experience pain personally, manifested as the activation of brain regions responsible for processing our own pain information (i.e., nociceptive stimuli). Activation of these areas allows the individual to perceive the pain of others while producing an emotional experience that is very similar to the sensation of personal pain.
Seeing others in pain, we also have similar emotional experiences (Image: Veer Gallery)
In other words, individuals create similar emotional experiences of pain by simulating the pain states of others in their brains. This operation of the brain is not only conducive to the observer to activate the self-protection mechanism and escape from potential dangers in time, but also allows the observer to experience and understand the pain suffered by the observer and the negative emotions experienced, prompting people to think in empathy and make prosocial and altruistic behaviors.
Does pain empathy affect only the perception of pain?
Pain, a matter of life and death, is a very special feeling and emotional experience. Sudden onset of pain often indicates danger and is of great significance to an individual's survival. Therefore, even pain that occurs in others rather than oneself will make the observer sensitive and alert. The researchers found that when pain empathy arises, individuals are also more sensitive to the pain exerted on themselves, which also provides evidence for a shared characterization model of empathy.
However, is the sensitivity triggered by this pain empathy only directed at one's own pain perception? What effect does pain empathy have on our processing of non-injurious somatic sensory stimuli (such as touch) and other sensory modal stimuli (such as hearing)?
To answer this question, the latest study first used pictorial material depicting scenes of injuries to induce pain empathy in observers, and then directly applied pain, tactile, or auditory stimuli to those observers. It was found that pain empathy had an enhancing effect on the subjective perception of pain, touch and auditory stimuli in individuals.
But pain empathy affects the psychological mechanisms of pain differently than other sensory modalities. On the one hand, pain empathy can improve the overall attention level of the individual, and the individual is more sensitive to both pain and non-pain stimuli; on the other hand, pain empathy also evokes the psychological response of the individual specific to pain perception, which makes people care more about the pain of others, and the more intense the response to their own pain.
△ Pain empathy has an enhancing effect on the subjective perception of individual pain, touch and auditory stimuli, but the psychological mechanisms involved are different (Source: Literature 6)
In the face of pain empathy, not "everyone is equal"
Although pain empathy is common in most cases and is not unique to humans, it is not difficult to find in life that people do not have the same degree of pain empathy for all people, nor do they produce strong pain empathy in all cases.
For example, when watching a sporting event such as boxing, or a movie in which the "bad guys" suffer injuries, we can temporarily "shut down" our empathy and be indifferent to their suffering. This is mainly because pain empathy can be influenced by a variety of factors such as personal experience, relationships, and psychological status.
First, there is its own pain sensitivity. In general, individuals with higher pain sensitivity have a stronger level of pain empathy for others and a stronger emotional and pain perception of the pain of others.
Comfort others (Image: Veer Gallery)
Second, there is group identity. People are more likely to empathize with their loved ones and loved ones than strangers; people are more likely to empathize with their own people than foreigners; even mice will only help their peers who are raised in the same cage rather than in the same cage, so that they can avoid pain.
People are more likely to empathize with their own people than foreigners (Image: Document 8)
Again, it's the vulnerability of the observer. People tend to show more pain empathy for vulnerable groups in life, because the physical or psychological vulnerability of vulnerable groups will cause people to pay more empathetic attention.
It can be seen that pain empathy not only has individual differences, but also has a certain preference.
However, pain empathy is not fixed and immutable. Although a person's ability to empathize is relatively stable in adulthood, we can still cultivate and develop pain empathy to some extent. On the one hand, enriching our own experience and cultivating our sensitivity to the pain of others can help us identify and judge the pain of others more quickly; on the other hand, social interaction is an important way to understand others and "empathize" with others, so training through music or dance, which is more social interaction, can help us put ourselves in the shoes of others.
Empathy with others means better social exchanges and more trust and cooperation, which is a powerful guarantee for promoting the harmonious development of society. Pain empathy can not only make individuals sensitive to the needs of others, such as making parents more aware of caring for and protecting children, but also allow individuals to understand and sympathize with the painful situation of others and help.
Caregivers and the elderly live in harmony (Image: Veer Gallery)
The in-depth exploration of pain empathy mechanisms, influencing factors, and regulatory means will help us to carry out more effective and accurate interventions in groups with abnormal empathy ability (such as autistic children and schizophrenic patients) and create a more harmonious and friendly social environment.
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