Emotional Pain, Empathy Linked to Physical Discomfort
A new study finds that feelings of being socially excluded, or feelings that a friendship has been lost or threatened can lead to physical pain.
A research team from the International School for Advance Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, Italy conducted an experiment in which 23 participants performed two tasks, during which subjects’ brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
One of the experiments consisted of subjects tossing a ball to each other, with 1 player being deliberately excluded by the others. Either a player was excluded, or a friend was excluded to trigger a condition of social pain. In the other experiment, a participant or the friend of a participant received a mildly painful stimulus. Each participant was a witness to their friend's experience, and this triggered the condition of physical pain.
The researchers found that both conditions activated the posterior insular cortex of the brain—the region linked to the sensory processing of physical pain. Interestingly, this region of the brain was activated whether a person experienced the social or physical pain conditions themselves, or witnessed a friend experiencing both conditions, according to the authors.
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The investigators noted that “the feeling of social pain guides our behavior,” explaining that an individual’s ultimate goal is to "prioritize escape, recovery, and healing," which is why people feel social pain and are able to empathize when others experience it.
In the course of the study, the authors were able to “activate areas coding not only for the affective, but for the somatosensory aspects of the experiences,” says Giovanni Novembre, a researcher and graduate student at SISSA, and a co-author of the study.
In addition, the experiments demonstrated for the first time that the same pattern of brain activity occurs when one empathizes with another person suffering from social pain, adds Novembre.
“We believe that primary care practitioners can take advantage of the results of this research,” he says, “confirming the neural overlap of physical and social pain in firsthand experiences.”
For example, the study reveals that patients that have recently experienced social pain—such as the loss of a loved one, or the rejection of a partner—can potentially be a physically painful experience as well, says Novembre.
On the other hand, “our study shows that empathizing with people undergoing such painful events is quite a strong experience, as confirmed by the involvement of both the affective and the sensory components of pain,” he adds. “Primary care practitioners have to be aware of this, and find the better strategies to reach a perfect balance between positive empathic relation with patients and a counter-productive involvement.”
—Mark McGraw
Reference:
Novembre G, Zanon M, et al. Empathy for social exclusion involves the sensory-discriminative component of pain: a within-subject fMRI study. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 2014.