1. Intracranial human recordings reveal association between neural activity and perceived intensity for the pain of others in the insula
- Author
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Soyman, Efe (ORCID 0000-0003-0192-1541 & YÖK ID 326947), Bruls, R.; Ioumpa, K.; Müller-Pinzler, L.; Gallo, S.; Qin, C.; van Straaten, E.C.W.; Self, M.W.; Peters, J.C.; Possel, J.K.; Onuki, Y.; Baayen, J.C.; Idema, S.; Keysers, C.; Gazzola, V., College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of Psychology, Soyman, Efe (ORCID 0000-0003-0192-1541 & YÖK ID 326947), Bruls, R.; Ioumpa, K.; Müller-Pinzler, L.; Gallo, S.; Qin, C.; van Straaten, E.C.W.; Self, M.W.; Peters, J.C.; Possel, J.K.; Onuki, Y.; Baayen, J.C.; Idema, S.; Keysers, C.; Gazzola, V., College of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Department of Psychology
- Abstract
Based on neuroimaging data, the insula is considered important for people to empathize with the pain of others. Here, we present intracranial electroencephalographic (iEEG) recordings and single-cell recordings from the human insula while seven epilepsy patients rated the intensity of a woman's painful experiences seen in short movie clips. Pain had to be deduced from seeing facial expressions or a hand being slapped by a belt. We found activity in the broadband 20-190 Hz range correlated with the trial-by-trial perceived intensity in the insula for both types of stimuli. Within the insula, some locations had activity correlating with perceived intensity for our facial expressions but not for our hand stimuli, others only for our hand but not our face stimuli, and others for both. The timing of responses to the sight of the hand being hit is best explained by kinematic information; that for our facial expressions, by shape information. Comparing the broadband activity in the iEEG signal with spiking activity from a small number of neurons and an fMRI experiment with similar stimuli revealed a consistent spatial organization, with stronger associations with intensity more anteriorly, while viewing the hand being slapped., We thank Pieter Roelfsema for enabling the collaboration that led to the access to the patients, Eline Ramaaker for her assistance in electrode localization, Agneta Fischer and George Bulte at UvA for advice and help with the use of FaceReader, and Tess den Uyl for advice on how to use FaceReader specifically to analyze facial expressions of pain. This work was supported by Dutch Research Council (NWO) VIDI grant (452-14-015) to VG and VICI grant (453-15-009) to CK.
- Published
- 2022