The shape (amplitude and latency) of single cortical responses to argon laser stimulation was found to match six perceptual classes: three pre-pain and three pain. The amplitude of the pain related single cortical responses correlated with the perceived feeling of pain. Easy detectable responses were obtained because habituation to the stimuli was reduced and a high degree of attention was give...

BACKGROUND Expectations congruently influence, or bias, pain perception. Recent social psychological research reveals that individuals differ in the extent to which they believe in expectation biases and that individuals who believe in expectation biases may adjust for this bias in their perceptions and reactions. That is, idiosyncratic beliefs about expectations can moderate the influence of e...

BACKGROUND There is ample research to support the existence of bias in the perception of others' pain. Both studies involving health-care professionals and student surrogate samples have found that, firstly, pain is under-perceived when using nonverbal cues to gauge another's suffering and, secondly, that personal characteristics of both the viewer and the target (such as gender) can bias pain ...

Recent neuroimaging findings suggest a role of the extrastriate body area (EBA) in self/other distinction and in the perception of pain and emotions in others. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated whether EBA is modulated by the perception of pain in others. Participants were scanned during 2 consecutive sessions: 1) a localizer task precisely identifying EBA in ...