ArticleTranslational psychiatry2014
Emotional contagion for pain is intact in autism spectrum disorders.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 59 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
59 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 136 citations in OpenAlex.
- Is the Putative Mirror Neuron System Associated with Empathy? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2021Pooled it
- A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on pain empathy: investigating the role of visual information and observers' perspective.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2019Pooled it
- 5-HTZoological research · 2026Article
- Watching Together, Yet Feeling Apart: Interpersonal Neural Synchronization as a Marker of Symptom Severity in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder During Naturalistic Viewing.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Empathic accuracy in individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis: Using a task with dynamic real-life emotional stimuli.Schizophrenia research. Cognition · 2026Article
- Neurobiological mechanisms and treatment of empathic pain in nonsuicidal self-injury.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Neuroimaging Evidence of Facial Emotion Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Functional Neuroimaging Studies.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Empathy as risk and protective factor in the development of adolescent aggression; the role of autism unraveled.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Examining the Link Between Social Affect and Visual Exploration of Cute Stimuli in Autistic Children.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Social inference brain networks in autistic adults during movie-viewing: functional specialization and heterogeneity.Molecular autism · 2025Article
- Exploring the Broader Autism Phenotype: How Alexithymia Impacts Recognition of Facial Expressions of Pain.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Exploring the Relationship Between Empathy and Social Skills for Individuals with Different Forms of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Disrupted cognitive and affective empathy network interactions in autistic children viewing social animation.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2024Article
- Article
- Eye Gaze in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Review of Neural Evidence for the Eye Avoidance Hypothesis.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2023Review
- Altered default mode network causal connectivity patterns in autism spectrum disorder revealed by Liang information flow analysis.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Relationships between alexithymia, interoception, and emotional empathy in autism spectrum disorder.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2023Article
- The relationship between alexithymia, interoception, and neural functional connectivity during facial expression processing in autism spectrum disorder.Neuropsychologia · 2023Article
- Show Me the Real You: Enhanced Expression of Rogerian Conditions in Therapeutic Relationship Building with Autistic Adults.Autism in adulthood · 2022Article
- Alexithymic But Not Autistic Traits Impair Prosocial Behavior.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 7 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Perceiving others in pain generally leads to empathic concern, consisting of both emotional and cognitive processes. Empathy deficits have been considered as an element contributing to social difficulties in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and short video clips of facial expressions of people experiencing pain to examine the neural substrates underlying the spontaneous empathic response to pain in autism. Thirty-eight adolescents and adults of normal intelligence diagnosed with ASD and 35 matched controls participated in the study. In contrast to general assumptions, we found no significant differences in brain activation between ASD individuals and controls during the perception of pain experienced by others. Both groups showed similar levels of activation in areas associated with pain sharing, evidencing the presence of emotional empathy and emotional contagion in participants with autism as well as in controls. Differences between groups could be observed at a more liberal statistical threshold, and revealed increased activations in areas involved in cognitive reappraisal in ASD participants compared with controls. Scores of emotional empathy were positively correlated with brain activation in areas involved in embodiment of pain in ASD group only. Our findings show that simulation mechanisms involved in emotional empathy are preserved in high-functioning individuals with autism, and suggest that increased reappraisal may have a role in their apparent lack of caring behavior.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.