PMID- 22355182
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20131105
LR  - 20211021
IS  - 1749-5024 (Electronic)
IS  - 1749-5016 (Print)
IS  - 1749-5016 (Linking)
VI  - 8
IP  - 4
DP  - 2013 Apr
TI  - Empathy for the social suffering of friends and strangers recruits distinct 
      patterns of brain activation.
PG  - 446-54
LID - 10.1093/scan/nss019 [doi]
AB  - Humans observe various peoples' social suffering throughout their lives, but it 
      is unknown whether the same brain mechanisms respond to people we are close to 
      and strangers' social suffering. To address this question, we had participant's 
      complete functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while observing a friend 
      and stranger experience social exclusion. Observing a friend's exclusion 
      activated affective pain regions associated with the direct (i.e. firsthand) 
      experience of exclusion [dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula], and 
      this activation correlated with self-reported self-other overlap with the friend. 
      Alternatively, observing a stranger's exclusion activated regions associated with 
      thinking about the traits, mental states and intentions of others ['mentalizing'; 
      dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), precuneus, and temporal pole]. Comparing 
      activation from observing friend's vs stranger's exclusion showed increased 
      activation in brain regions associated with the firsthand experience of exclusion 
      (dACC and anterior insula) and with thinking about the self [medial prefrontal 
      cortex (MPFC)]. Finally, functional connectivity analyses demonstrated that MPFC 
      and affective pain regions activated in concert during empathy for friends, but 
      not strangers. These results suggest empathy for friends' social suffering relies 
      on emotion sharing and self-processing mechanisms, whereas empathy for strangers' 
      social suffering may rely more heavily on mentalizing systems.
FAU - Meyer, Meghan L
AU  - Meyer ML
AD  - Department of Psychology, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, PR China.
FAU - Masten, Carrie L
AU  - Masten CL
FAU - Ma, Yina
AU  - Ma Y
FAU - Wang, Chenbo
AU  - Wang C
FAU - Shi, Zhenhao
AU  - Shi Z
FAU - Eisenberger, Naomi I
AU  - Eisenberger NI
FAU - Han, Shihui
AU  - Han S
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PT  - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
DEP - 20120221
PL  - England
TA  - Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci
JT  - Social cognitive and affective neuroscience
JID - 101288795
SB  - IM
MH  - Adolescent
MH  - Adult
MH  - Brain/*physiology/physiopathology
MH  - Brain Mapping/methods
MH  - Emotions/physiology
MH  - Empathy/*physiology
MH  - Female
MH  - Friends/*psychology
MH  - Humans
MH  - Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods
MH  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods
MH  - Male
MH  - Nervous System Physiological Phenomena
MH  - Pain/physiopathology/psychology
MH  - Photic Stimulation/methods
MH  - Psychological Distance
MH  - Stress, Psychological/psychology
MH  - Young Adult
PMC - PMC3624958
EDAT- 2012/02/23 06:00
MHDA- 2013/11/06 06:00
PMCR- 2014/04/01
CRDT- 2012/02/23 06:00
PHST- 2012/02/23 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2012/02/23 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2013/11/06 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2014/04/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - nss019 [pii]
AID - 10.1093/scan/nss019 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2013 Apr;8(4):446-54. doi: 10.1093/scan/nss019. Epub 
      2012 Feb 21.