Journal
SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 16, Issue 11, Pages 1113-1122Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab066
Keywords
art; anterior insula; cingulate cortex; inferior frontal gyrus; pain
Categories
Funding
- Chiesi Foundation
- Maria Paola Chiesi
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Empathy for pain brain regions are commonly activated by both artistic and non-artistic painful facial expressions, suggesting the importance of empathy in the aesthetic experience of artworks. Additionally, a distinct activation was found in the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus for non-artistic stimuli.
Empathy for pain involves sensory and visceromotor brain regions relevant also in the first-person pain experience. Focusing on brain activations associated with vicarious experiences of pain triggered by artistic or non-artistic images, the present study aims to investigate common and distinct brain activation patterns associated with these two vicarious experiences of pain and to assess whether empathy for pain brain regions contributes to the formation of an aesthetic judgement (AJ) in non-art expert observers. Artistic and non-artistic facial expressions (painful and neutral) were shown to participants inside the scanner and then aesthetically rated in a subsequent behavioural session. Results showed that empathy for pain brain regions (i.e. bilateral insular cortex, posterior sector of the anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior portion of the middle cingulate cortex) and bilateral inferior frontal gyrus are commonly activated by artistic and non-artistic painful facial expressions. For the artistic representation of pain, the activity recorded in these regions directly correlated with participants' AJ. Results also showed the distinct activation of a large cluster located in the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus for non-artistic stimuli. This study suggests that non-beauty-specific mechanisms such as empathy for pain are crucial components of the aesthetic experience of artworks.
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