ArticleHuman brain mapping2021
Effects of repeated menstrual pain on empathic neural responses in women with primary dysmenorrhea across the menstrual cycle.
Article in Human brain mapping, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Integrated transcriptomic and proteomic profiling implicates prostaglandin-nitric oxide network dysregulation in uterine microcirculatory impairment in primary dysmenorrhea.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Gray matter alterations and pain-related emotional processing in patients with adenomyosis-associated dysmenorrhea: a neuroimaging perspective.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2025Article
- Exploring Pain Empathy Among Doctors, Nurses and Patients: A Scoping Review.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2025Review
- Characteristics of pain empathic networks in healthy and primary dysmenorrhea women: an fMRI study.Brain imaging and behavior · 2024Article
- Mechanism of action of Taohong Siwu decoction in the alleviation of primary dysmenorrhea.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Evaluating the relationship between pain empathy, knowledge and attitudes among nurses in North China: a cross-sectional study.BMC nursing · 2023Article
- Altered anterior insula functional connectivity in adolescent and young women with endometriosis-associated pain: Pilot resting-state fMRI study.European journal of paediatric neurology : EJPN : official journal of the European Paediatric Neurology Society · 2022Article
- Prevalence of chronic pelvic pain and primary dysmenorrhea in women of reproductive age in Ecuador.BMC women's health · 2022Article
- Primary Dysmenorrhea Associated with Psychological Distress in Medical Sciences Students in The North of Iran: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of fertility & sterility · 2022Article
- The Establishment of a Mouse Model of Recurrent Primary Dysmenorrhea.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Effects of repeated menstrual pain on empathic neural responses in women with primary dysmenorrhea across the menstrual cycle.Human brain mapping · 2021Article
- Association Between Trait Empathy and Resting Brain Activity in Women With Primary Dysmenorrhea During the Pain and Pain-Free Phases.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM) is cyclic menstrual pain in the absence of pelvic anomalies, and it is thought to be a sex-hormone related disorder. Existing study has focused on the effects of menstrual cramps on brain function and structure, ignoring the psychological changes associated with menstrual pain. Here we examined whether pain empathy in PDM differs from healthy controls (HC) using task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Fifty-seven PDM women and 53 matched HC were recruited, and data were collected at the luteal and menstruation phases, respectively. During fMRI scans, participants viewed pictures displaying exposure to painful situations and pictures without any pain cues and assessed the level of pain experienced by the person in the picture. Regarding the main effect of the pain pictures, our results showed that compared to viewing neutral pictures, viewing pain pictures caused significantly higher activation in the anterior insula (AI), anterior cingulate cortex, and the left inferior parietal lobule; and only the right AI exhibited a significant interaction effect (group × picture). Post-hoc analyses confirmed that, relative to neutral pictures, the right AI failed to be activated in PDM women viewing painsss pictures. Additionally, there was no significant interaction effect between the luteal and menstruation phases. It suggests that intermittent pain can lead to abnormal empathy in PDM women, which does not vary with the pain or pain-free phase. Our study may deepen the understanding of the relationship between recurrent spontaneous pain and empathy in a clinical disorder characterized by cyclic episodes of pain.
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