Human beings' perception and reaction to the pain of others is not just out of sympathy, but a deep emotional resonance. This ability, called pain empathy, allows individuals to not only see the pain of others, but also to feel and understand this pain internally. Through scientific research, we are gradually exploring how brain structure plays a role in this process, and revealing some surprising findings.

Pain empathy is a special form of empathy that involves recognizing and understanding the suffering of others.

The mechanism of pain empathy

When people observe sadness or pain in others, emotional neurons in the brain are activated, a process called empathy. Brain regions located in the prefrontal and parietal lobes, such as the inferior longitudinal prefrontal lobe and the opposing organismal sensory cortex, are often key to this resonance. These areas help individuals respond internally when observing the emotions of others.

The ability to differentiate between self and others helps distinguish sources in emotional resonance and maintain a certain degree of self-boundary.

Observe reactions to pain

For example, when subjects in the study viewed a painful facial expression, their brains showed significant potential changes within about 600 to 1,000 milliseconds, indicating a strong response to pain in their brains. This reaction is usually stronger than other emotions such as happiness or fear.

Pain processing areas in the brain

Not only people who directly experience pain, but also some brain areas are activated when observing others suffering pain, including the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral anterior insula. This shows how intricately interconnected the brain's structures work when experiencing pain.

Grieved faces, crying, or screaming are important signals that convey pain to others.

Bias and variability of pain empathy

Different social, racial, and cultural backgrounds influence empathic responses to the suffering of others. Research shows that people often underestimate the amount of physical pain others are experiencing, which makes their empathic responses weaker. In some cases, differences in social class can also affect people's empathy for pain, with individuals being more sensitive to the pain of those with lower social status than themselves.

Doctors’ empathic response to pain

Doctors often face witnessing patients' pain in clinical situations, and they need to adjust their emotions to maintain professionalism. In one study, doctors' brain responses to watching painful stimuli showed that while some pain-processing areas of the brain were deactivated, they showed activity in higher-level executive function areas. This shows that doctors have a different way of dealing with pain empathy than the general population.

Cultural variability

Different cultural backgrounds also have a significant impact on the perception of painful empathy. British and East Asian participants had completely different responses to the same painful stimulus, with the former showing higher emotional resonance and empathic concern. This difference highlights the role of culture in shaping our perception of others' suffering.

Most people will find that empathy for pain is affected by race and social class, but the psychological mechanisms behind this phenomenon have yet to be fully explored.

Pain empathy is not only a part of social interaction, it also reflects the common understanding and care of mankind. But can we use these results to think more deeply about our own emotional reactions to witnessing the suffering of others?

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