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Empathy for others’ pain rooted in cognition rather than sensation

The ability to understand and empathize with others’ pain is grounded in cognitive neural processes rather than sensory ones, according to the results of a new study led by University of Colorado Boulder researchers.

The findings show that the act of perceiving others’ pain (i.e., empathy for others’ pain) does not appear to involve the same neural circuitry as experiencing pain in one’s own body, suggesting that they are different interactions within the brain.

“The research suggests that empathy is a deliberative process that requires taking another person’s perspective rather than being an instinctive, automatic process,” said Tor Wager, the senior author of the study, director of the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at CU-Boulder.

A study detailing the results was published online today in the journal eLife.

Empathy is a key cornerstone of human social behavior, but the complex neural interactions underlying this behavior are not yet fully understood. Previous hypotheses have suggested that the same brain regions that allow humans to feel pain in their own bodies might activate when perceiving the pain of others.

To test this idea, the researchers compared patterns of brain activity in human volunteers as they experienced moderate pain directly (via heat, shock, or pressure) in one experimental session, and watched images of others’ hands or feet being injured in another experimental session. When volunteers watched images, they were asked to try to imagine that the injuries were happening to their own bodies.

The researchers found that the brain patterns when the volunteers observed pain did not overlap with the brain patterns when the volunteers experienced pain themselves. Instead, while observing pain, the volunteers showed brain patterns consistent with mentalizing, which involves imagining another person’s thoughts and intentions.

The results suggest that within the brain, the experience of observing someone else in pain is neurologically distinct from that of experiencing physical pain oneself.

“Most previous studies focused only on the points of similarity between these two distinct experiences in a few isolated brain regions while ignoring dissimilarities. Our new study used a more granular analysis method,” said Anjali Krishnan, the lead author of the study and a post-doctoral research associate in the Institute of Cognitive Science at CU-Boulder while the research was conducted. She is currently an assistant professor at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

This new analysis method identified an empathy-predictive brain pattern that can be applied to new individuals to obtain a brain-related ‘vicarious pain score,’ opening new possibilities for measuring the strength of activity in brain systems that contribute to empathy.

The results may open new avenues of inquiry into how the brain regions involved in empathy help humans to relate to others when they experience different types of pain. Future studies may also explore the factors that influence one’s ability to adopt another’s perspective and whether it might be possible to improve this ability.

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Illustrator and anatomy instructor Chuan-Bin Chung composes stunning and highly detailed illustration of the human drawing. He creates the ephemeral drawings on chalkboards as a learning guide. He beautifully depicts the body’s muscles, bones and tendons.

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Muslims, dalits and tribals make up 53% of all prisoners in India - The Times of India

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Skull Armchair

This part is very representative and in line with Gregory Besson creations, who is working on the vanities revisited since 2008. It connects aesthetics and timeless questioning, that the human has against death. Sitting on death and having fun on it is like trying to forget death a moment. The user of this chair will be backwards to death, maybe trying to outsmart it ? This true masterpiece appeals to old and recent techniques for its manufacture.The body of the skull is made of polyester, this technique is used by many carver since the 60s. The seat is leather and installation is Chesterfield type, which requires techniques of 18th century. Different unique finishes are coming and will be available. Get yours here

How do you get STDs?

Someone asked us:

I’m kind of confused about STDs. How can you get them? Also, what happens if you have sex when you’re on your period?

STDs are passed from one person to another during sexual contact. So STDs don’t appear out of nowhere, someone has to give it to you (just like the common cold or the flu). Some STDs are caused by bacteria, so they can be cured with antibiotics (like chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis).

Other STDs are caused by a virus, so they may clear up on their own, or they live in your body for life (like herpes, HIV, HPV, and hepatitis). No matter what kind of STD it is, you get them from someone else by having sex — oral sex, anal sex, vaginal sex, or genital skin-to-skin contact. Every STD is a little different, so some are most likely to be passed by vaginal sex (like HIV), and others can easily be passed by skin-to-skin contact (like herpes).

You can help prevent getting STDs by having safer sex. This means using condoms or Sheer Glyde dental dams (a latex sheet that covers your vulva or anus during oral sex) every time you have sex. But safer sex is just that - safer. It’s not 100%. So if you’re having any kind of sex, talk with a doctor or nurse about getting tested for STDs. You can get tested at your nearest Planned Parenthood health center.

To answer your second question, there’s nothing wrong with having sex on your period. In fact, it is perfectly normal to have sex on your period as long as both you and your partner are comfortable with it. (It’s also totally okay if you want to skip period sex.) But you can still pass STDs and get pregnant during your period, so use condoms along with another form of birth control every single time you have sex.  

-Taylor at Planned Parenthood