Abstract
This research explored how the manipulation of interoceptive attentiveness (IA) can influence the frontal (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and somatosensory cortices) activity associated with the emotional regulation and sensory response of observing pain in others. 20 individuals were asked to observe face versus hand, painful/non-painful stimuli in an individual versus social condition while brain hemodynamic response (oxygenated (O2Hb) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (HHb) components) was measured via functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). Images represented either a single person (individual condition) or two persons in social interaction (social condition) both for the pain and body part set of stimuli. The participants were split into experimental (EXP) and control (CNT) groups, with the EXP explicitly required to concentrate on its interoceptive correlates while observing the stimuli. Quantitative statistical analyses were applied to both oxy- and deoxy-Hb data. Firstly, significantly higher brain responsiveness was detected for pain in comparison to no-pain stimuli in the individual condition. Secondly, a left/right hemispheric lateralization was found for the individual and social condition, respectively, in both groups. Besides, both groups showed higher DLPFC activation for face stimuli presented in the individual condition compared to hand stimuli in the social condition. However, face stimuli activation prevailed for the EXP group, suggesting the IA phenomenon has certain features, namely it manifests itself in the individual condition and for pain stimuli. We can conclude that IA promoted the recruitment of internal adaptive regulatory strategies by engaging both DLPFC and somatosensory regions towards emotionally relevant stimuli.
Highlights
Can the manipulation of interoception affect the mirroring empathic effect of observing another person receiving a painful stimulation? Which effects does the attention to internal states produce at the cortical level? The term “interoception” refers to the perception of the afferent signals on the bodily status and homeostasis, primarily associated with the physiological condition of the body
Pairwise comparisons showed a higher activation in the frontal compared to central Regions of Interest (ROI) for face in the individual condition (F[1,18] = 8.832, p ≤ 0.008, η2 = 0.329), and for face compared to hand in the frontal ROI in the individual condition (F[1,18] = 0.066, p ≤ 0.001, η2 = 0.329)
Significant greater activation was found in the frontal ROI for hand stimuli in the social compared to individual condition (F[1,18] = 12.918, p ≤ 0.002, η2 = 0.418)
Summary
Can the manipulation of interoception affect the mirroring empathic effect of observing another person receiving a painful stimulation? Which effects does the attention to internal states produce at the cortical level? The term “interoception” refers to the perception of the afferent signals on the bodily status and homeostasis, primarily associated with the physiological condition of the body. Interoception consists of multiple different dimensions ranging from the brain-andbody to the cognition level: interoceptive sensitivity (IS) is a first dimension routinely measured as a person’s capacity to sense and properly report one’s heartbeats at rest; while the dimension of interoceptive awareness (IAw) corresponds to subject’s confidence in his/her own behavioral performance controlled on the basis of his/her accuracy performance in Heart Beat Detection task [3, 4] Previous studies conceived those interoception dimensions (i.e., IS and IAw) as a relatively stable trait that might alter both the subjective experience of emotion and the capacity to differentiate “self” from “other” in the empathic resonance of action [5]. IA can be modulated and can be trained by mindfulness training (MT): it seems that MT increases the contribution of interoception to perceptual experience [6]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
