Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26417092›Full record

Trial reportProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2015

Placebo analgesia and its opioidergic regulation suggest that empathy for pain is grounded in self pain.

Markus Rütgen, Eva-Maria Seidel, Giorgia Silani, Igor Riečanský, Allan Hummer, Christian Windischberger, Predrag Petrovic, Claus Lamm

Registry-linked trialOpen access · bronzeAbstract readMulticenter StudyRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05986513 (Investigating Brain Abnormalities in People With Knee Osteoarthritis Using MRI), which is not on this map. Cited by 101 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
101citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
10.4field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

NCT05986513 naunknown statusnot on this mapstarted 2023, after this paper: background citation

Investigating Brain Abnormalities in People With Knee Osteoarthritis Using MRI: a Nociplastic Pain Mechanism Based Assessment

TypeinterventionalSponsorToronto Rehabilitation InstituteRan2023 to 2025Enrolled66ConditionsChronic Pain, Central Sensitisation, Knee OsteoarthritisArmsCold Pressor Gel Test
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

101 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 222 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Trial
  5. Effects of compassion training on brain responses to suffering others.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2021
    Trial
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  7. Trial
  8. Trial
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  11. Frontal-Brainstem Pathways Mediating Placebo Effects on Social Rejection.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2017
    Trial
  12. Trial
  13. A Reliable Effect of Alexithymia, but Not Autism, on Placebo Hypoalgesia.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026
    Article
  14. Article
  15. The Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Prosocial Behavior toward Others in Negative State.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026
    Review
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. The social origins of consciousness.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
  19. Review
  20. Review

41 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.

Markus RütgenSocial, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria;
Eva-Maria SeidelSocial, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria;
Giorgia SilaniCognitive Neuroscience Sector, International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste 34136, Italy; Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria;
Igor RiečanskýSocial, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria; Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology, Centre of Excellence for Examination of Regulatory Role of Nitric Oxide in Civilization diseases, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava 813 71, Slovakia;
Allan HummerMedical Research (MR) Center of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria; Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria;
Christian WindischbergerMedical Research (MR) Center of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria; Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria;
Predrag PetrovicCognitive Neurophysiology Research Group, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm 171 76, Sweden.
Claus LammSocial, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria; claus.lamm@univie.ac.at.
University of Vienna · ATMedical University of Vienna · ATKarolinska Institutet · SEScuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati · ITSlovak Academy of Sciences · SK

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Empathy for pain activates brain areas partially overlapping with those underpinning the first-hand experience of pain. It remains unclear, however, whether such shared activations imply that pain empathy engages similar neural functions as first-hand pain experiences. To overcome the limitations of previous neuroimaging research, we pursued a conceptually novel approach: we used the phenomenon of placebo analgesia to experimentally reduce the first-hand experience of pain, and assessed whether this results in a concomitant reduction of empathy for pain. We first carried out a functional MRI experiment (n = 102) that yielded results in the expected direction: participants experiencing placebo analgesia also reported decreased empathy for pain, and this was associated with reduced engagement of anterior insular and midcingulate cortex: that is, areas previously associated with shared activations in pain and empathy for pain. In a second step, we used a psychopharmacological manipulation (n = 50) to determine whether these effects can be blocked via an opioid antagonist. The administration of the opioid antagonist naltrexone blocked placebo analgesia and also resulted in a corresponding "normalization" of empathy for pain. Taken together, these findings suggest that pain empathy may be associated with neural responses and neurotransmitter activity engaged during first-hand pain, and thus might indeed be grounded in our own pain experiences.

Indexed as

AnalgesiaEmpathyMagnetic Resonance ImagingNeuroimagingAdultBrainFemaleHumansMaleNaltrexoneNarcotic AntagonistsPainPlacebo EffectRadiographyNaltrexoneNarcotic AntagonistsempathyfMRIpainplacebopsychopharmacology

Identifiers

PMID26417092
PMCPMC4611649
OpenAlexW2139657021

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

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.