Poster No:
631
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Yoshiyuki Onuki1, Amarsanaa Lkhagvasuren1, Takeshi Nakajima1, Efe Soyman2, Kensuke Kawai1, Valeria Gazzola3, Christian Keysers3
Institutions:
1Jichi Medical University, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, 2Koç University, Sariyer, Istanbul, 3Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, North Holland
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Valeria Gazzola
Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Amsterdam, North Holland
Introduction:
In our daily lives, we often recognize others' pain through their behavior. Research has demonstrated that beta activity in the human subthalamic nucleus (STN) is associated with the experience of pain (Parker et al., 2020). Additionally, the STN is a common target region for deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS), a therapeutic approach to alleviate motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease. Notably, STN-DBS has also been shown to reduce pain perception (Oshima et al., 2012). However, it remains unclear whether the STN is involved in perceiving the pain of others.
Methods:
In the experiment 1, using the clinically implanted macroelectrodes, we recorded the local-field potentials (LFP) of the bilateral subthalamic nucleus in eight Parkinson's disease patients (2 males, 6 females, mean age: 63.9 ± 8.4 years [Mean ± STD]) when they watched movies of others in pain and evaluated their pain intensity. PD patients performed six runs of a pain rating task after implanting the depth electrode. All patients performed the task in the "ON" period after administration of dopaminergic medication. The modified version of the pain rating task (Gallo et al., 2018; Soyman et al., 2022) was adopted to fit the experimental protocol for the LFP recording. The task consisted of the video part and evaluation parts. In the video part, the patients watched 2-second videos starting with 1 second of baseline period that showed neutral facial expressions of a Caucasian female or a static hand image, followed by 1 second of shock delivery with accompanying facial expression (face condition) or of the hand being slapped with a belt (hand condition). In the evaluation part, patients were instructed to verbally report the pain intensity on a scale from 0 (no pain) to 10 (the worst imaginable pain) experienced by the person in the video.
In the experiment 2, to verify whether the involvement of the STN in pain perception in others can also be observed in healthy older adults, we conducted a similar experiment with 15 participants (12 males, 3 females; mean age: 70.8 ± 3.0). Brain activity was measured using functional MRI (fMRI) during a modified pain perception task. In the evaluation part, participants were instructed to press the button to report the pain intensity on a scale from 0 to 10.
Results:
The averaged power of the middle-high beta frequency band (16-30Hz) of STN activity increased from the baseline during the observed pain sensation of others. Activation of the STN was observed when participants viewed scenes of a hand being struck with a belt as well as scenes of painful facial expressions. The fMRI analysis revealed that viewing scenes of a hand being struck with a belt predominantly activated the right STN, while viewing scenes of painful facial expressions activated the STN bilaterally (p < 0.001, uncorrected; cluster-level family-wise error corrected at p < 0.05).
Conclusions:
Our findings, based on both fMRI and LFP recordings, showed increased middle-high beta band (16–30 Hz) activity in the STN during the perception of painful scenes. The fMRI analysis further revealed that observing a hand being struck with a belt predominantly activated the right STN, whereas observing painful facial expressions activated the STN bilaterally. These results suggest a possible involvement of the human STN in processing the pain of others.
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Social Cognition 1
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Higher Cognitive Functions Other
Neuroanatomy, Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission:
Subcortical Structures
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
BOLD fMRI
Perception, Attention and Motor Behavior:
Perception: Pain and Visceral 2
Keywords:
Pain
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Task-activation
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Patients
Was this research conducted in the United States?
No
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
Yes
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
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Not applicable
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Functional MRI
Neurophysiology
Structural MRI
Diffusion MRI
Behavior
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
3.0T
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
SPM
FSL
Provide references using APA citation style.
Gallo, S. (2018). The causal role of the somatosensory cortex in prosocial behaviour. eLife, 7, e32740.
Oshima, H. (2012). Subthalamic nucleus stimulation for attenuation of pain related to Parkinson disease. Journal of Neurosurgery, 116(1), 99–106.
Parker, T. (2020). Pain-induced beta activity in the subthalamic nucleus of Parkinson’s disease. Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, 98(3), 193–199.
Soyman, E. (2022). Intracranial human recordings reveal association between neural activity and perceived intensity for the pain of others in the insula. eLife, 11, e75197.
No