Figure 1.

(A) Common brain activation related to empathetic pain perception as revealed by a meta-analysis on 28 functional MRI studies on empathetic pain (false-discovery rate P < 0.05 and cluster size > 240 mm³). Anterior insular and anterior cingulate cortices showed the most consistent activation among all 28 studies. (B) Reconstruction of anterior insular cortex lesions of three patients and (C) reconstruction of anterior cingulate cortex lesions of another three patients. Lesions were mapped on the same hemisphere to show degree of overlap. The brain template used in (B) and (C) was created by a neurologist (R.T.K.) and its reference line is tilted 12 degrees from the anterior commissure—posterior commissure plane. Red colour indicates 100% overlap.