Regional and whole-brain neurofunctional alterations during pain empathic processing of physical but not affective pain in migraine patients.

Journal: The journal of headache and pain
Published Date: Jun 12, 2025

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Accumulating evidence suggests that migraine patients present abnormal brain responses to salient sensory and emotional stimuli. However, it is still unclear whether this is a generalized or domain-specific phenomenon. Employing a well-validated fMRI paradigm, we investigated pain empathic reactivity across two domains: observation of physical pain (noxious stimulation) and affective pain (facial expressions). On the basis of a generalized hyperexcitability/hyperreactivity in migraine, we hypothesized abnormal responses to both dimensions of pain empathy.

Authors

  • Dan Liu
    Department of Bioengineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
  • Menghan Li
    National Engineering Research Centre for Agri-Product Quality Traceability, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China.
  • Heng Jiang
    Civil Aviation Key Laboratory of Aircraft Health Monitoring and Intelligent Maintenance, College of Civil Aviation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China.
  • Yiqi Mi
    The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
  • Xiaolei Xu
    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. xu.xiaolei@mayo.edu.
  • Yali Zhou
    The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
  • Yaxian Hou
    The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
  • Yuquan Shen
    Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Longquanyi District, Chengdu, China.
  • Michael Maes
    Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
  • Xiao Xiao
    George Washington University.
  • Feng Zhou
    Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
  • Luca Giani
    Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, Neurological Rehabilitation Unit of Milano Institute, Milano, Italy.
  • Keith M Kendrick
  • Benjamin Becker
    Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology, Chengdu, China.
  • Stefania Ferraro
    The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China. stefania@uestc.edu.cn.

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