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Exp Brain Res (2016) 234:26772686 DOI 10.1007/s00221-016-4671-z
RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Web End = Repeated exposure to vicarious pain alters electrocortical processing of pain expressions
MichelPierre Coll1,2,3 Mathieu Grgoire1,2,3 Kenneth M. Prkachin4 Philip L. Jackson1,2,3
Abstract Repeated exposure to others in pain has been shown to bias vicarious pain perception, but the neural correlates of this effect are currently not known. The current study therefore aimed at measuring electrocortical responses to facial expressions of pain following exposure to expressions of pain. To this end, a between-subject design was adopted. Participants in the Exposure group were exposed to facial expressions of intense pain, while the participants in the Control group were exposed to neutral expressions before performing the same pain detection task. As in previous studies, participants in the Exposure group showed a signicantly more conservative bias when judging facial expressions pain, meaning that they were less inclined to judge moderate pain expressions as painful compared to participants in the Control group. Event-related potential analyses in response to pain or neutral expressions indicated that this effect was related to a relative decrease in the central late positive potential responses to pain expressions. Furthermore, while the early N170 response was not inuenced by repeated exposure to pain
* Philip L. Jackson [email protected]
1 Facult des sciences sociales, cole de psychologie, Pavillon Flix-Antoine-Savard, Universit Laval, 2325, rue des Bibliothques, Quebec City, QC G1V0A6, Canada
2 Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en radaptation et intgration sociale, 525, boul. Wilfrid-Hamel, Quebec City, QC G1M2S8, Canada
3 Centre de recherche de lInstitut universitaire en sant mentale de Qubec, 2601, de la Canardire, Quebec City, QC G1J2G3, Canada
4 Department of Psychology, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC V2N4Z9, Canada
Received: 12 January 2016 / Accepted: 30 April 2016 / Published online: 7 May 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
expressions, the P100 component showed an adaptation effect in the Control group only. These results suggest that repeated exposure to vicarious pain do not inuence early event-related potential responses to pain expressions but decreases the late central positive potential. These results are discussed in terms of changes in the perceived saliency of pain expressions following repeated exposure.
Keywords Facial expression Vicarious pain Event-related potential Late positive...