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López Solà, MarinaAuthor
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Somatic and vicarious pain are represented by dissociable multivariate brain patterns

Publicated to:Elife. 5 (e15166): - 2016-06-14 5(e15166), DOI: 10.7554/eLife.15166

Authors: Krishnan A; Woo CW; Chang LJ; Ruzic L; Gu X; López-Solà M; Jackson PL; Pujol J; Fan J; Wager TD

Affiliations

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, United States. - Author
CUNY Brooklyn Coll, Dept Psychol, Brooklyn, NY 11210 USA - Author
CUNY Queens Coll, Dept Psychol, New York, NY USA - Author
Dartmouth Coll, Dept Psychol & Brain Sci, Hanover, NH 03755 USA - Author
Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, United States. - Author
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, United States. - Author
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, United States. - Author
Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn, United States. - Author
Department of Psychology, Queens College of the City University of New York, New York City, United States. - Author
Duke Univ, Ctr Cognit Neurosci, Durham, NC 27706 USA - Author
École de Psychologie, Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada. - Author
Hosp del Mar, CIBERSAM G21, Dept Radiol, MRI Res Unit, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Icahn Sch Med Mt Sinai, Dept Psychiat & Neurosci, New York, NY 10029 USA - Author
Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, United States. - Author
MRI Research Unit, Radiology Department, Hospital del Mar, CIBERSAM G21, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, United States. - Author
UCL, Wellcome Trust Ctr Neuroimaging, London, England - Author
Univ Colorado, Dept Psychol & Neurosci, Boulder, CO 80309 USA - Author
Univ Colorado, Inst Cognit Sci, Boulder, CO 80309 USA - Author
Univ Laval, Ecole Psychol, Quebec City, PQ, Canada - Author
Univ Texas Dallas, Sch Behav & Brain Sci, Richardson, TX 75083 USA - Author
Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom. - Author
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Abstract

Understanding how humans represent others' pain is critical for understanding pro-social behavior. 'Shared experience' theories propose common brain representations for somatic and vicarious pain, but other evidence suggests that specialized circuits are required to experience others' suffering. Combining functional neuroimaging with multivariate pattern analyses, we identified dissociable patterns that predicted somatic (high versus low: 100%) and vicarious (high versus low: 100%) pain intensity in out-of-sample individuals. Critically, each pattern was at chance in predicting the other experience, demonstrating separate modifiability of both patterns. Somatotopy (upper versus lower limb: 93% accuracy for both conditions) was also distinct, located in somatosensory versus mentalizing-related circuits for somatic and vicarious pain, respectively. Two additional studies demonstrated the generalizability of the somatic pain pattern (which was originally developed on thermal pain) to mechanical and electrical pain, and also demonstrated the replicability of the somatic/vicarious dissociation. These findings suggest possible mechanisms underlying limitations in feeling others' pain, and present new, more specific, brain targets for studying pain empathy.

Keywords
empathyfmrihumanmultivariate patternsneuroscienceEmpathyFmriHumanMultivariate patternsNeurosciencePain

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Elife due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2016, it was in position 4/85, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Biology.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 4.05. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 4.73 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 47.06 (source consulted: Dimensions May 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-05-15, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 117
  • Scopus: 177
  • Europe PMC: 94
  • OpenCitations: 202
Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-05-15:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 335.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 334 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 147.822.
  • The number of mentions on the social network Facebook: 6 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 78 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Canada; United Kingdom; United States of America.