Fig. 4.

A schematic summary of the main findings and interpretations. The blue dots illustrate the cACC and the middle insula, i.e., areas related to emotional component of pain and activated similarly during both physically and psychologically induced pain. The red dots depict the SII cortex and the posterior insula that are related to the sensory component of pain and were activated more strongly during physically than psychologically induced pain. This difference, however, could reflect quantitative rather than qualitative differences in the processing of sensory information and therefore could be insufficient for judging the reality of pain without knowledge about the source of this information. On the basis of the known functional neuroanatomy and the observed correlation between the mPFC (yellow dots, rACC; pericingulate cortex; pACC) and SRP, we propose that the mPFC could be related to such source monitoring.