Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33789899›Full record

ArticleScience advances2021

Observation of others' painful heat stimulation involves responses in the spinal cord.

Alexandra Tinnermann, Christian Büchel, Jan Haaker

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
12citing papers in PubMed
1.3field-weighted citation impact, top 21% 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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

12 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Spine-Prints: Transposing Brain Fingerprints to the Spinal Cord.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Spinal Cord fMRI: A New Window into the Central Nervous System.The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry · 2023
    Review
  10. Brain-to-brain mechanisms underlying pain empathy and social modulation of pain in the patient-clinician interaction.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023
    Article
  11. Review
  12. Observation of others' threat reactions recovers memories previously shaped by firsthand experiences.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Alexandra TinnermannDepartment of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-9646-0201
Christian BüchelDepartment of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-1965-906X
Jan HaakerDepartment of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. j.haaker@uke.de.ORCID 0000-0001-8366-9559
Universität Hamburg · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Observing others' aversive experiences is central to know what is dangerous for ourselves. Hence, observation often elicits behavioral and physiological responses comparable to first-hand aversive experiences and engages overlapping brain activation. While brain activation to first-hand aversive experiences relies on connections to the spinal cord, it is unresolved whether merely observing aversive stimulation also involves responses in the spinal cord. Here, we show that observation of others receiving painful heat stimulation involves neural responses in the spinal cord, located in the same cervical segment as first-hand heat pain. However, while first-hand painful experiences are coded within dorsolateral regions of the spinal cord, observation of others' painful heat stimulation involves medial regions. Dorsolateral areas that process first-hand pain exhibit negative responses when observing pain in others. Our results suggest a distinct processing between self and others' pain in the spinal cord when integrating social information.

Identifiers

PMID33789899
PMCPMC8011973
OpenAlexW3146912505

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.