Table 1.
Studies included in ALE meta-analysis of empathy for pain
| Author | Year | Title | N | Mean age (SD) | Description of empathy stimuli |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akitsuki et al. | 2009 | Social context and perceived agency affects empathy for pain: an event-related fMRI investigation | 26 | 28.9 (5.6) | Animations of feet and hands in pain |
| Azevedo et al. | 2013 | Their pain is not our pain: brain and autonomic correlates of empathic resonance with the pain of same and different race individuals | 27 | 23.57 (4.01) | Videos of hands inserted with needles |
| Azevedo et al. | 2014 | Weighing the stigma of weight: an fMRI study of neural reactivity to the pain of obese individuals | 12 | 22.2 (2.6) | Video of faces inserted with needles |
| Benuzzi et al. | 2018 | Pain mirrors: neural correlates of observing self or others’ facial expressions of pain | 27 | 21.3 | Videos depicting painful facial expressions |
| Berlingeri et al. | 2016 | Guess who’s coming to dinner: brain signatures of racially biased and politically correct behaviours | 25 | 25.3 (4.81) | Videos of hands inserted with needles |
| Bos et al. | 2015 | Oxytocin reduces neural activity in the pain circuitry when seeing pain in others | 24 | 23.1 | Videos of hands inserted with needles |
| Cao et al. | 2015 | Racial bias in neural response to others’ pain is reduced with other-race contact | 30 | 23.17 (1.8) | Video of faces inserted with needles |
| Cao et al. | 2019 | Neural and behavioural markers of observed pain of older adults | 29 | 21.42 | Videos of faces with needles inserted |
| Cheng et al. | 2010 | Love hurts: an fMRI study | 36 | 23 (3) | Animations of feet and hands in pain |
| Christov-Moore et al. | 2019 | Sex differences in somatomotor representations of others’ pain: a permutation-based analysis | 70 | 18–35 | Videos of hands with needles inserted |
| Contreras-Huerta et al. | 2013 | Racial bias in neural empathic responses to pain | 20 | 22.5 (1.06) | Video of faces inserted with needles |
| Enzi et al. | 2016 | Empathy for pain-related dorsolateral prefrontal activity is modulated by angry face perception | 20 | 27 (5.08) | Picture of faces or hands with needles inserted |
| Fan et al. | 2014 | Empathic arousal and social understanding in individuals with autism: evidence from fMRI and ERP measurements | 21 | 19.3 (3.4) | Images of hands and feet in painful situations |
| Feng et al. | 2016 | Social hierarchy modulates neural responses of empathy for pain | 22 | 22.23 (1.85) | Picture of faces or hands with needles inserted |
| Fourie et al. | 2017 | Empathy and moral emotions in post-apartheid South Africa: an fMRI investigation | 38 | 40.11 (4.12) | Facial expressions of pain |
| Gu et al. | 2013 | Cognition-emotion integration in the anterior insular cortex | 18 | 25.2 | Pictures hands feet painful situation |
| Guo et al. | 2012 | Empathic neural responses to others’ pain depend on monetary reward | 16 | 23.5 | Images depicting hand, fingers, ears in painful situations |
| Guo et al. | 2013 | Exposure to violence reduces empathetic responses to other’s pain | 40 | 22.15 (2.67) | Images depicting hand, fingers, ears in painful situations |
| Han et al. | 2017 | Empathy for pain motivates actions without altruistic effects: evidence of motor dynamics and brain activity | 33 | 22.91 (2.47) | Video of faces with needles inserted |
| Jackson et al. | 2006 | Empathy examined through the neural mechanisms involved in imagining how I feel vs how you feel pain | 34 | 29 (6.5) | Images of hands and feet in painful situations |
| Jackson et al. | 2005 | How do we perceive the pain of others? A window into the neural processes involved in empathy | 15 | 22 (2.6) | Images of hands and feet in painful situations |
| Krach et al. | 2015 | Evidence from pupillometry and fMRI indicates reduced neural response during vicarious social pain but not physical pain in autism | 16 | 24.3 | Images of hands and feet in painful situations |
| Lamm & Decety. | 2008 | Is the extrastriate body area (EBA) sensitive to the perception of pain in others? | 18 | 23.67 (3.99) | Images of hands with needles inserted |
| Laselle et al. | 2019 | Influence of anxiety and alexithymia on brain activations associated with the perception of others’ pain in autism | 20 | 24.15 | Videos of hands or feet with needle or scalpel |
| Ma et al. | 2011 | Neural responses to perceived pain in others predict real-life monetary donations in different socioeconomic contexts | 33 | 22.4 (2) | Videos of faces or hands with needles inserted |
| Majdandzic et al. | 2016 | The selfless mind: how prefrontal involvement in mentalizing with similar and dissimilar others shapes empathy and prosocial behaviour | 32 | 22.7 (3.2) | Videos of people receiving painful shocks |
| Morelli et al. | 2014 | The neural components of empathy: predicting daily prosocial behaviour | 32 | 19.9 (1.4) | Images of hands and feet in painful situations |
| Noll-Hussong et al. | 2013 | Neural correlates of deficits in pain-related affective meaning construction in patients with chronic pain disorder | 19 | 46.62 (12.49) | Images of hands and feet in painful situations |
| Preis et al. | 2013 | The effects of prior pain experience on neural correlates of empathy for pain: an fMRI study | 64 | 22.98 (4.1) | Images depicting hands receiving pressure pain from an algometer |
| Richins et al. | 2019 | Empathic responses are reduced to competitive but not non-competitive outgroups | 69 | 20.57 | Pictures hands feet painful situation |
| Ruckmann et al. | 2015 | How pain empathy depends on ingroup/outgroup decisions: a functional magnet resonance imaging study | 30 | 24.5 (3.36) | Images of hands and feet in painful situations |
| Seara-Cardoso et al. | 2015 | Neural responses to others’ pain vary with psychopathic traits in healthy adult males | 46 | 27. 93 | Images of hands and feet in painful situations |
| Sheng et al. | 2014 | Task modulations of racial bias in neural responses to others’ suffering | 21 | 22 (1.8) | Facial expressions of pain |
| Vachon-Presseau et al. | 2012 | Neural processing of sensory and emotional-communicative information associated with the perception of vicarious pain | 20 | 36 (10) | Images depicting hand, feet in pain situations or facial experssions of pain |
| van der Heiden et al. | 2013 | Inter-individual differences in successful perspective taking during pain perception mediates emotional responsiveness in self and others: an fMRI study | 18 | 25.3(2.54) | Images depicting hand, feet in pain situations |
| Vistoli et al. | 2016a | Changes in visual perspective influence brain activity patterns during cognitive perspective-taking of other people’s pain | 21 | 29.2 (7.9) | Animations depicting hands in pain situations |
| Wang et al. | 2015 | Challenging emotional prejudice by changing self-concept: priming independent self-construal reduces racial in-group bias in neural responses to other’s pain | 30 | 22.6 (2.4) | Videos of faces or hands with needles inserted |
| Zheng et al. | 2016a | Perceived reputation of others modulates empathic neural responses | 20 | 25 (1.6) | Images depicting hands or fingers in painful situations |
| Zheng et al. | 2016b | Decreased empathic responses to the ‘lucky guy’ in love: the effect of intrasexual competition | 20 | 21.7 (1.89) | Images depicting hand, fingers, ears in painful situations |