Article
Neurosciences
Helena Hartmann, Markus Ruetgen, Federica Riva, Claus Lamm
Summary: The study found that while there was a significant localized placebo analgesia effect for self-experienced pain, there were no differences between the two hands in empathy conditions, both in terms of behavioral and neural responses. This suggests that there is no evidence of somatosensory sharing in empathy, but it does confirm overlapping brain activity in the affective-motivational component for first-hand and empathy for pain.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Parvaneh Yaghoubi Jami, Hyemin Han, Stephen J. Thoma, Behzad Mansouri, Rick Houser
Summary: The research suggests that prior experiences of pain can influence empathic responses, particularly in terms of cognitive empathy towards psychological pain. Participants who had experienced a personal loss scored higher on perspective taking in the psychological pain condition. The study also found variations in emotional brain activity at specific time windows across different conditions.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Zilong Wei, Yujuan Huang, Xiong Li, Min Shao, Huiling Qian, Bojun He, Jing Meng
Summary: This present study investigates how aggressive exercise modulates individuals' responses to their own and others' pain. Study 1 shows that aggressive exercise decreases individuals' self-perceived pain. Study 2 demonstrates that aggressive exercise increases individuals' empathic responses to others' pain.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Helena Hartmann, Paul A. G. Forbes, Markus Rutgen, Claus Lamm
Summary: The administration of painkillers reduces pain empathy and may also reduce prosocial behavior.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Helena Hartmann, Magdalena Banwinkler, Federica Riva, Claus Lamm
Summary: This study investigated potential psychological and structural brain differences between placebo responders and non-responders in the domain of pain. The results showed significant group differences in trait characteristics, with responders reporting increased helping behavior and lower psychopathic traits compared to non-responders. Uncorrected results also showed higher pain-related empathic concern in responders. These results suggest that modifiability of one's pain perception by placebo effects is linked to personality traits characterizing social emotions and behavior.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Markus Rutgen, Eva-Maria Wirth, Igor Riecansky, Allan Hummer, Christian Windischberger, Predrag Petrovic, Giorgia Silani, Claus Lamm
Summary: The study suggests that shared neural representations play a role in empathy across different domains; placebo analgesia can reduce both first-hand and empathic experiences of unpleasant touch, while an opioid antagonist cannot block these effects; there are differences in neural mechanisms between pain empathy and pain.
Article
Psychology, Biological
Wanying Liao, Yi Zhang, Xiaohan Huang, Xiaoyu Xu, Xiaozhe Peng
Summary: The study found that while recognition of pain expressions is better for faces compared to emoji, there are similarities in neural response during early and later stages of processing between the two. However, there are distinct differences in neural response between faces and emoji during the P3 and N2 stages.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Wen Li, Yue Lv, Xu Duan, Guo Cheng, Senbang Yao, Sheng Yu, Lingxue Tang, Huaidong Cheng
Summary: This study found that breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy showed impairment in pain empathy, which may be correlated with changes in N1 and P2 components in ERP.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Anesthesiology
Neil Singla, Todd Bertoch, Srinivas Shenoy, Sagar Munjal
Summary: The analgesic efficacy and safety of DFN-15, a new oral liquid formulation of celecoxib, were evaluated in the treatment of acute pain in adult patients after dental surgery. The study showed that DFN-15 was superior to placebo in reducing pain intensity, providing pain relief, increasing treatment satisfaction, and reducing the use of rescue medication, without apparent dose-related effects.
Article
Neurosciences
HuiLing Li, Dong Zhao, BinJie Yang, YuHui Zhao, HanZhi Huang, Huan Jiang, MeiFen Chen, Qiang Zhou, Liang Ying
Summary: This study aims to determine readers' preferential pain empathy for doctors or patients in news articles about doctor-patient conflicts, and it shows that news-induced moral judgment can sway readers' empathy for different social groups. Under low moral judgment, individuals pay less attention to the patient's pain; under high moral judgment, individuals empathize with the doctor more.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Tianlong Chen, Qianqian Li, Ming Peng, Xu Li
Summary: This study investigated the influence of moral transgression on empathy for others' pain in both behavioral and neural processes. The results showed a decreased empathic response in the moral transgression condition compared to the neutral behavior condition. Additionally, participants had higher spontaneous brain activity in the moral transgression condition. These findings suggest that moral transgression affects both cognitive and sensorimotor processes of empathy for others' pain.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Lewis S. Crawford, Emily P. Mills, Theo Hanson, Paul M. Macey, Rebecca Glarin, Vaughan G. Macefield, Kevin A. Keay, Luke A. Henderson
Summary: Perception of pain can be influenced by expectations and beliefs. This study used ultra-high-field fMRI to investigate the brainstem pathways involved in placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia, revealing differential activation of key pain modulatory nuclei during these phenomena.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Ye Zhang, Bin He, Jinqiu Zhao, Muzi Zhang, Qinsong Ren, Wei Zhang, Shuai Xu, Zhengxue Quan, Yunsheng Ou
Summary: The study demonstrates that combination analgesia with celebrex, pregabalin, and ropivacaine is effective in alleviating pain after posterior spinal surgery, with reduced consumption of PCA compared to controls.
DRUG DESIGN DEVELOPMENT AND THERAPY
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Corentin A. Wicht, Michael Mouthon, Joelle Nsimire Chabwine, Jens Gaab, Lucas Spierer
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the neural correlates of expectation effects in placebo analgesia (PA) with or without conditioning through prior experience. The results suggest that modifications in the PA-associated brain activity by conditioning are either absent or very small in the presence of verbally-induced expectations.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Anesthesiology
Jonathan N. Davies, Louise Sharpe, Melissa A. Day, Ben Colagiuri
Summary: Recent studies suggest that placebo effects contribute to acute pain relief after mindfulness interventions. However, the specific effects of mindfulness processes and their interaction with placebo effects are still unclear. This study aimed to examine the role of mindfulness and placebo processes in mindfulness-based pain attenuation.
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Drahomir Michalko, Martin Marko, Igor Riecansky
Summary: This study examines the contribution of automatic and controlled processes to semantic retrieval in the SVF task. The findings suggest that the relative contribution of these processes changes over time and task demands, with individuals with less efficient interference control showing steeper retrieval slowing. Additionally, poorer working-memory capacity is associated with slower retrieval in the SVF task.
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH-PSYCHOLOGISCHE FORSCHUNG
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Martin Marko, Drahomir Michalko, Jozef Dragasek, Zuzana Vancova, Dominika Jarcuskova, Igor Riecansky
Summary: Category and letter verbal fluency assessment is widely used in research, but the processes measured by these assessments are still debated. A psychometric study was conducted, showing that category fluency primarily involves free-associative retrieval, while letter fluency suppresses habitual semantic associates. These findings indicate that category and letter fluency tasks reflect partially distinct forms of memory search and retrieval control.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Paul A. G. Forbes, Ekaterina Pronizius, Anja C. Feneberg, Urs M. Nater, Giulio Piperno, Giorgia Silani, Ana Stijovic, Claus Lamm
Summary: This study investigates the real-time effects of social interactions on momentary changes in stress and mood during COVID-19 lockdowns. The findings suggest that social interactions, especially face-to-face interactions, can improve momentary affect by reducing stress and boosting mood. Additionally, individual differences in responsiveness to social rewards modulate the impact of social interactions on momentary mood.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Isabella C. Wagner, Luise P. Graichen, Boryana Todorova, Andre Luettig, David B. Omer, Matthias Stangl, Claus Lamm
Summary: Grid cells in the human entorhinal cortex can track the movement of others, contributing to social-spatial navigation.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Rastislav Rovny, Martin Marko, Drahomir Michalko, Milan Mitka, Barbora Cimrova, Zuzana Vancova, Dominika Jarcuskova, Jozef Dragas, Gabriel Minarik, Igor Riecansky
Summary: The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is crucial for synaptic plasticity, which is a potential neurobiological mechanism for learning and memory. A specific variant in the BDNF gene, Val66Met (rs6265), has been associated with memory and cognition in both healthy individuals and clinical populations. This study investigated how BDNF Val66Met genotype influences the consolidation of episodic declarative and procedural memories in adults. The carriers of the Met66 allele exhibited a greater level of forgetting overnight (24 hours after encoding), but not immediately or 20 minutes after word presentation. Val66Met genotype did not have an impact on motor learning. These findings suggest that BDNF plays a role in the neuroplasticity involved in episodic memory consolidation during sleep.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Hana H. Kutlikova, Lei Zhang, Christoph Eisenegger, Jack van Honk, Claus Lamm
Summary: When being watched, humans behave more prosocially, and the hormone testosterone can diminish feigned prosociality and decrease submission to audience expectations. Testosterone does not impair reinforcement learning, but alters the translation of choice value information into action selection when being observed. This study provides novel evidence of testosterone's effects on implicit reward processing, counteracting conformity and deceptive reputation strategies.
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Clemens Mielacher, Dirk Scheele, Maximilian Kiebs, Laura Schmitt, Torge Dellert, Alexandra Philipsen, Claus Lamm, Rene Hurlemann
Summary: This study found that there are altered neural responses to social touch in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Despite clinical improvements after antidepressant treatment, MDD patients still showed aversion to interpersonal touch and reduced brain responses in areas such as the nucleus accumbens compared to healthy controls. These findings reveal the abnormal processing of social touch in MDD, which may contribute to social withdrawal and isolation.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Federica Riva, Ekaterina Pronizius, Melanie Lenger, Martin Kronbichler, Giorgia Silani, Claus Lamm
Summary: Humans have a tendency to imitate others and control this behavior. Interference control develops rapidly in childhood, plateaus in adulthood, and declines with age. However, the neural processes underlying these differences across the lifespan are unclear.
SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Catherine-Noemie Alexandrina Guran, Ronald Sladky, Sabrina Karl, Magdalena Boch, Elmar Laistler, Christian Windischberger, Ludwig Huber, Claus Lamm
Summary: Comparative neuroimaging is valuable for studying the evolutionary origins of brain organization. We developed a specialized coil for high-resolution imaging in dogs, which outperforms the human coil in signal-to-noise ratio and improves imaging quality. Our findings demonstrate the importance of hardware improvements for dog-human comparative neuroimaging.
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Drahomir Michalko, Martin Marko, Igor Riecansky
Summary: Emerging work in semantic cognition examines the relationship between semantic memory structure and goal-directed memory retrieval processes. However, these objectives are neglected in the assessment and interpretation of semantic verbal fluency tasks. This study investigates how the organization of semantic knowledge moderates the relationship of retrieval fluency with working memory and interference control capacities in verbal fluency tasks.
Article
Neurosciences
Diana Bzduskova, Martin Marko, Zuzana Hirjakova, Igor Riecansky, Jana Kimijanova
Summary: Fear of heights significantly affects posture adaptation to balance-destabilizing events, with individuals experiencing intense fear showing a stiffer posture compared to those with low fear. This finding is particularly pronounced during virtual height exposure.
FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Correction
Neurosciences
Hana H. Kutlikova, Lei Zhang, Christoph Eisenegger, Jack van Honk, Claus Lamm
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Nace Mikus, Christoph Eisenegger, Christoph Mathys, Luke Clark, Ulrich Mueller, Trevor W. Robbins, Claus Lamm, Michael Naef
Summary: The study investigates the impact of the D2/D3 dopamine receptor antagonist sulpiride on learning about other people's prosocial attitudes. The results show that sulpiride increases the volatility of beliefs, leading to higher precision weights on prediction errors. This effect is more significant in participants with genetically conferred higher dopamine availability and remains even after controlling for working memory performance. The findings demonstrate the importance of D2 receptors in regulating belief updating in a social context.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Kimberly C. Doell, Marc G. Berman, Gregory N. Bratman, Brian Knutson, Simone Kuhn, Claus Lamm, Sabine Pahl, Nik Sawe, Jay J. Van Bavel, Mathew P. White, Tobias Brosch
Summary: This paper argues that neuroscience can contribute significantly to the fight against climate change by studying its impact on the human brain, adaptation strategies, decision-making processes, and communication strategies. It provides a framework and roadmap for organizing and prioritizing neuroscience research in this domain. The paper also calls on neuroscientists to join broader scientific efforts in tackling the existential environmental threats Earth is currently facing.
NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE
(2023)
Article
Anatomy & Morphology
Dominika Petrikova, Martin Marko, Rastislav Rovny, Igor Riecansky
Summary: Recent research has shown that the cerebellum plays a role in language functions and is involved in lexical-semantic memory. This study used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to target the cerebellum and found that anodal stimulation facilitated the retrieval of semantically related words, while cathodal stimulation had the opposite effect, although not significant.
BRAIN STRUCTURE & FUNCTION
(2023)