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This study tested the hypothesis that autistic traits influence the neuronal habituation that underlies the processing of others' pain. Based on their autism-spectrum quotient (AQ), two groups of participants were classified according to their autistic traits: High-AQ and Low-AQ groups. Their event-related potentials in response to trains of three identical audio recordings, exhibiting either painful or neutral feelings of others, were compared during three experimental tasks. (1) In a Pain Judgment Task, participants were instructed to focus on pain-related cues in the presented audio recordings. (2) In a Gender Judgment Task, participants were instructed to focus on non-pain-related cues in the presented audio recordings. (3) In a Passive Listening Task, participants were instructed to passively listen. In the High-AQ group, an altered empathic pattern of habituation, indexed by frontal-central P2 responses of the second repeated painful audio recordings, was found during the Passive Listening Task. Nevertheless, both High-AQ and Low-AQ groups exhibited similar patterns of habituation to hearing others' voices, both neutral and painful, in the Pain Judgment and Gender Judgment Tasks. These results suggest altered empathic neuronal habituation in the passive processing of others' vocal pain by individuals with autistic traits.

Pain is typically expressed through various sensory (e.g., visual and auditory) modalities: the human voice conveys information about social and affective communication. While the empathic responses to others' pain in the visual modality are modulated by top-down attention constraints, it remains unclear whether empathy for such expressions in the auditory modality also involves such top-down modulation mechanisms. Therefore, the present study investigates how neural correlates of empathic processes to others' vocal pain are modulated by the task-instructed attention manipulations. Each participant completed the following three tasks: (1) Pain Judgment Task, in which participants were instructed to pay attention to pain cues in vocal stimuli, (2) Gender Judgment Task, in which participants were instructed to pay attention to non-pain cues in vocal stimuli; (3) Passive Listening Task, a control task in which participants were instructed to passively listen to the vocal stimuli without any required response. The earlier frontal-central N1 response to either others' painful or neutral voice was greater in the Pain Judgment Task than in the other two tasks, suggesting a general attention modulation on the bottom-up sensory processing of vocal stimuli. The frontal-central P2 responses to others' painful voices was greater in the Pain Judgment Task than in the other two tasks, but not to others' neutral voices, thus suggesting selective attention modulation on the P2 response to others' pain. Late positive complex (LPC) to others' painful and neutral voices differed significantly regardless of task manipulations, thus suggesting empathic pain modulation on LPC response. All these results demonstrated top-down attention modulation on affective sharing responses others' vocal pain, but not on cognitive appraisal process of others' vocal pain., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

While empathic responses of individuals with autism-spectrum disorder have been reported to be modulated by top-down attention, it remains unclear whether empathy for pain in typically developing individuals with autistic traits also involves such top-down modulation mechanisms. This study employed the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) to quantify autistic traits in a group of 1,231 healthy adults. Two subset groups (High-AQ and Low-AQ groups) were randomly selected from the highest and lowest 10% AQ scores respectively. We explored whether participants in both groups would differ in their response to others' pain when their attention was directed toward (A-P tasks) or away (A-N tasks) from pain cues in auditory and visual experimental modalities. Compared to Low-AQ individuals, High-AQ individuals exhibited more suppressed N1 and P2 amplitudes in response to painful vocal cues in auditory A-N tasks. This suggests suppressed attentional and emotional processes of empathy for pain when High-AQ individuals have their attention directed away from others' pain cues. No significant difference was found between both groups in the auditory A-P task, nor in the visual A-P and A-N tasks. These results suggest that top-down attention modulation of cortical empathic responses to others' vocal pain is influenced by autistic traits.

Although racial in-group bias in empathy for pain has been reported, empathic responses to others' pain may be influenced by other characteristics besides race. To explore whether skin color and attractiveness modulate empathy for pain, we recorded 24 participants' reactions to painful faces from racial in-group members with different skin color (fair, wheatish, or dark) and attractiveness (more or less attractive) using event-related potentials (ERPs). Results showed that, for more attractive painful faces, dark skin faces were judged as less painful and elicited smaller N2 amplitudes than fair- and wheatish-skinned faces. However, for less attractive faces, there were no significant differences among the three skin colors. Our findings suggest that empathy for pain toward racial in-group members may be influenced by skin color and attractiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capsaicin, the main spicy ingredient in chili, can activate pain receptors on the human tongue and skin. Although some studies have determined that pain influenced preference for high-calorie foods, little is known whether pain can modulate the individuals' preference for spicy foods and its neural mechanisms. After 30 participants underwent painful (topical capsaicin cream) and control (hand cream) treatments, an event-related potential (ERP) study was conducted to investigate the modulation of capsaicin-induced pain on food preference with food images. Results showed that both P3 and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes during the painful treatment were significantly larger than those during the control treatment for low-calorie non-spicy food cues. However, for the other three categories of food cues, there were no significant differences between the two treatments. The present study suggests that capsaicin-induced pain increases individuals' neural processing of low-calorie non-spicy food cues, which provides empirical evidence on the relationship between pain and neural responses to food cues to help optimize dietary interventions for patients experiencing pain. • Whether pain can modulate individuals' preferences for foods was studied. • AnERP study was conducted to investigate the modulation of capsaicin-induced pain on food preference with food images. • Both P3 and LPP amplitudes were larger for low-calorie non-spicy food cues during the painful than the control treatment. • Capsaicin-induced pain increases individuals' neural processing of low-calorie non-spicy food cues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Individuals who suffered emotional neglect in childhood have reduced emotional empathy. • A history of emotional neglect leads individuals to exhibit reduced psychophysiological responses to others' pain, which is reflected in the reduction of early empathetic neural responses. • The neural mechanisms involved in emotional sharing were influenced by social relationships, which might mediate the racial biases exhibited in individual behaviors. Emotional neglect during childhood was associated with adverse long-term consequences for mental health and may impact neural responses by altering the trajectories of brain development. Pain empathy, a crucial social adaptive ability that recognizes and understands another person's pain, was found to be correlated with early developmental experiences. However, the impact of emotional neglect on neural responses related to pain empathy remains inadequately explored. Utilizing childhood trauma questionnaires and event-related potential (ERP), the electrical response of the brain to a specific stimulus, this study investigated the impact of emotional neglect experiences on pain empathy neural responses among 62 Chinese college students. The results of correlation analysis demonstrated a significant association between childhood emotional neglect scores and the empathic N2 responses (defined as pain minus non-pain conditions), representing the early emotional sharing process of pain empathy. The findings clarified the effects of specific forms of traumatic experiences on individuals' social functioning and laid the foundation for further exploring the impact of trauma on neural responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]