1. UNIVERSITY OF CRETE DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE INTRAPARTMENTAL GRATUATE PROGRAMM IN THE BRAIN AND MIND SCIENCES YEAR 2013-2014 SUBJECT: CERBRAL CORTEX PROFESSOR: SAVVAKI E. STUDENT: OURANOU M.

2. Empathy for Pain and Touch in the Human Somatosensory Cortex Ilaria Bufalari1, Taryn Aprile, Alessio Avenanti1, Francesco Di Russo and Salvatore Maria Aglioti Cerebral Cortex November 2007;17:2553--2561 doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl161 Advance Access publication January 6, 2007

3. The subject The neural base of Empathy The Central Question Observation of painful & tactile stimuli => neural activation of the observer’s somatic sensory system (?) Method: - Somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs) -EEG supracranial recordings

4. Experimental Design (1/2) Recordings 1.Electrical stimulation (wrist: right median nerve) [!] Unseen by the subjects [!] Painless ( freq. 3Hz, duration 0,7 ms, mean intensity 11mA) => Used for somatosensory potentials elicitation 2.Electroculogramm (EOG): below the left eye 3.Scalp electrodes (4 “regions”- 7 components )

5. The experimental design (2/2) Block duration: 63 s (9 video clips of the same category, clip duration = 6s) [!] syringe/Q-tip holder: not visible [!] 3 different penetration/touch places [!] 3 different liquid/tip colors The same location & color was not shown consequently in the same block

6. Visual Analog Scale (VAS) After the session=> reviewing of the video clips I) Self-orientated measure: The subjects evaluated the degree of aversion they felt 0 cm = “no effect”, 10 cm= “maximal imaginable” II) Other-orientated measure: 1.The Intensity ( how much intense for the model were the stimuli?) 2.The Unpleasantness (How much the stimuli bothered the model?)

7. So, what are they practically looking for? Amplitude: the magnitude of change in the oscillating value Amplitude ratio: the vertical distance between the heights of the wave's peaks and the heights of its troughs. Changes of Amplitude => ERPs : Event Related Potentials [?]

8. Results (1/3)

9. Results (2/3)

10. Results (3/3) VAS & amplitude correlation [!] significant correlation found ONLY between P45 amplitude change & VAS Intensity

11. Conclusions Aim: to find correlation between amplitude changes and stimuli conditions The amplitude was reduced by touch stimuli and increased by painful stimuli observation Correlation was found with the intensity of pain & touch The findings indicate that: 1.Observing others’ bodily sensations may influence the way we process our own experiences 2.Other’s noxious & non-noxious sensations may be processed differently but mapped on the somatosensory cortex. A “mirror sensory” mechanism Extracts sensory features of other’s pain and maps them onto the somatic cortex [?]

12. Thank you !!!!