Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10316/92901
Title: Volitional Modulation of the Left DLPFC Neural Activity Based on a Pain Empathy Paradigm A Potential Novel Therapeutic Target for Pain
Authors: Travassos, C.
Sayal, Alexandre
Direito, Bruno 
Castelhano, João 
Castelo-Branco, Miguel 
Keywords: Neuroimaging; Real-time fMRI; Neurofeedback; Pain empathy; Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Issue Date: 21-Jul-2020
Serial title, monograph or event: Frontiers in Neurology
Volume: 11
Abstract: The ability to perceive and feel another person’ pain as if it were one’s own pain, e.g., pain empathy, is related to brain activity in the “pain-matrix” network. A non-core region of this network in Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) has been suggested as a modulator of the attentional-cognitive dimensions of pain processing in the context of pain empathy. We conducted a neurofeedback experiment using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI-NF) to investigate the association between activity in the left DLPFC (our neurofeedback target area) and the perspective assumed by the participant (“first-person”/“Self” or “third-person”/“Other” perspective of a pain-inducing stimulus), based on a customized pain empathy task. Our main goals were to assess the participants’ ability to volitionally modulate activity in their own DLPFC through an imagery task of pain empathy and to investigate into which extent this ability depends on feedback. Our results demonstrate participants’ ability to significantly modulate brain activity of the neurofeedback target area for the “first-person”/”Self” and “third-person”/”Other” perspectives. Results of both perspectives show that the participants were able to modulate (with statistical significance) the activity already in the first run of the session, in spite of being naïve to the task and even in the absence of feedback information. Moreover, they improved modulation throughout the session, particularly in the “Self” perspective. These results provide new insights on the role of DLPFC in pain and pain empathy mechanisms and validate the proposed protocol, paving the way for future interventional studies in clinical populations with empathic deficits
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10316/92901
DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2020.00714
Rights: openAccess
Appears in Collections:I&D CIBIT - Artigos em Revistas Internacionais

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat
2020_CarolinaTravassos_FrontiersNeurology.pdf2.72 MBAdobe PDFView/Open
Show full item record

SCOPUSTM   
Citations

4
checked on Nov 9, 2022

WEB OF SCIENCETM
Citations

6
checked on May 2, 2023

Page view(s)

239
checked on Oct 9, 2024

Download(s)

163
checked on Oct 9, 2024

Google ScholarTM

Check

Altmetric

Altmetric


This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License Creative Commons