Seeing actions, emotions and feelings of other individuals may activate resonant mechanisms that allow the empathic understanding of others' states. Being crucial for implementing pro-social behaviors, empathy is considered as inherently altruistic. Here we explored whether the personal experience of pain make individuals less inclined to share others' pain. We used laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) to explore whether observation of painful or non-noxious stimuli delivered to a stranger model induced any modulation in the pain system of onlookers who were suffering from pain induced by the laser stimuli. After LEPs recording, participants rated intensity and unpleasantness of the laser pain, and of the pain induced by the movie in themselves and in the model. Mere observation of needles penetrating the model's hand brought about a specific reduction of the N1/P1 LEP component, related to the activation of somatic nodes of the pain matrix. Such reduction is stronger in onlookers who rated the pain intensity induced by the pain movie as higher in themselves and lower in the model. Conversely, the N2a-P2 component, supposedly associated to affective pain qualities, did not show any specific modulation during observation of others' pain. Thus, viewing 'flesh and bone' pain in others specifically modulates neural activity in the pain matrix sensory node. Moreover, this socially-derived inhibitory effect is correlated with the intensity of the pain attributed to self rather than to others suggesting that being in pain may bias the empathic relation with stranger models towards self-centred instead than other-related stances.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.12.056 | DOI Listing |
Mol Pharm
January 2025
Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23298, United States.
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a serious side effect of anticancer agents with limited effective preventive or therapeutic interventions. Although fenofibrate, a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPARα) agonist, has demonstrated neuroprotective and analgesic properties, its clinical utility is hindered by low receptor affinity, poor subtype selectivity, and suboptimal bioavailability. A190, a highly selective and potent nonfibrate PPARα agonist, offers a promising alternative but is limited by poor aqueous solubility, resulting in reduced oral bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of the Research to Practice column is to enhance the research critique abilities of both advanced practice registered nurses and emergency nurses, while also aiding in the translation of research findings into clinical practice. Each column focuses on a specific topic and research study. In this article, we used a scenario of chronic pain exacerbation to explore the study by Eucker et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Department of Operating Room, Baoding First Central Hospital, Baoding, China.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of kinesiophobia following Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) on the rehabilitation outcomes of patients during hospitalization, includes examining the trends in resting pain levels at various time points post-surgery, the trends in active flexion of the knee at various time points post-surgery, and the effects of kinesiophobia on the timing of first postoperative ambulation, the duration of postoperative hospital stay, and the results of the two-minute walk test on the day of discharge. Postoperative kinesiophobia in patients was identified using the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK), with 33 patients scoring >37 points and 35 patients scoring ≤37 points. Resting Pain levels were assessed using the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) at various time points, including upon return to the ward (T1), the first (T2), second (T3), third (T4), fifth(T5) postoperative days, and the day of discharge (T6).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Songpa-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Objective: Cubital tunnel syndrome is a common peripheral neuropathy of the upper extremity. Anterior transposition of the ulnar nerve is an established surgical treatment option for this condition. This study aimed to introduce a novel musculofascial lengthening technique that uses only a portion of the flexor-pronator muscle mass for submuscular anterior transposition of the ulnar nerve and investigate its clinical outcomes.
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