ArticleHuman brain mapping2020
The linkage between first-hand pain sensitivity and empathy for others' pain: Attention matters.
Article in Human brain mapping, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Empathic Accuracy and Behavioral Empathy After a Moderate Dose of Beer.Human psychopharmacology · 2026Trial
- Neural effects of cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation over left supramarginal gyrus on cognitive empathy for pain.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Modulating empathy with tDCS: dissociable roles of rTPJ and lDLPFC.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Pain sensitivity mediates the relationship between empathy for pain and psychopathic traits.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Different Effects of Firsthand Pain and Nonpain Electrical Stimulation on Pain Empathy: An EEG Study.Pain research & management · 2025Article
- The mutual influences between working memory and empathy for pain: the role of social distance.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2024Article
- Altered neurophysiological responses during empathy for pain in insomnia: evidence from an EEG study in non-clinical samples.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2024Article
- Intact painful sensation but enhanced non-painful sensation in individuals with autistic traits.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Autistic Traits and Empathy for Others' Pain Among the General Population: Test of the Mediating Effects of First-Hand Pain Sensitivity.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2023Article
- Scarcity mindset reduces empathic responses to others' pain: the behavioral and neural evidence.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2023Article
- Are women more empathetic than men? Questionnaire and EEG estimations of sex/gender differences in empathic ability.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2023Article
- Pain Empathy and Its Association with the Clinical Pain in Knee Osteoarthritis Patients.Journal of pain research · 2022Article
- Effect of doctor-patient news-induced moral judgments on pain empathy for doctors and patients in China.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Empathy for pain in individuals with autistic traits during observation of static and dynamic stimuli.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- The alterations in event-related potential responses to pain empathy in breast cancer survivors treated with chemotherapy.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- ERP Indicators of Self-Pain and Other Pain Reductions due to Placebo Analgesia Responding: The Moderating Role of the Fight-Flight-Freeze System.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- The linkage between first-hand pain sensitivity and empathy for others' pain: Attention matters.Human brain mapping · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Many studies suggested shared psychological and neural representations for first-hand physical pain and empathy for others' pain, both of which depend strongly upon top-down controlled mechanisms such as attention. This study aimed to assess the interindividual variation in first-hand physical pain and empathy for pain, and whether their relationship is dependent upon attention. We recruited participants exhibiting high and low sensitivity to first-hand pain (HPS and LPS), and adopted pain empathy paradigms involving attention directed toward or withdrawn from pain of another. Relative to the LPS group, participants in the HPS group estimated greater pain intensity experienced by others, felt greater unpleasantness when viewing others in pain, and exhibited greater sensitivity in discriminating others' pain. Electroencephalographic data showed that when attention was directed toward others' pain, only participants in the HPS group exhibited significant pain empathic effects on the N1 component of event-related potentials and on the α-oscillation response. These empathic neural responses mediated the linkage between first-hand pain sensitivity and empathic behavioral responses. Nevertheless, empathic responses were comparable between two groups when attention was withdrawn from others' pain. These results demonstrate a shared sensitivity to first-hand pain and empathy for pain provided that attention is directed toward pain.
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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.