Supplementary Material
Anterior insular cortex is necessary for empathetic pain perception
Xiaosi Gu1-3*, Zhixian Gao4, Xingchao Wang4, Xun Liu1,5, Robert T. Knight7,8, Patrick R. Hof 2,3, and
Jin Fan1-3,6
1
Department of Psychiatry, 2Fishberg Department of Neuroscience, and 3Friedman Brain Institute,
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029
4
Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital of Capital Medical University,
Beijing 100050, China
5
Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing 100101, China
6
Department of Psychology, Queens College, The City University of New York,
Flushing, NY 11367
7
Helen Willis Neuroscience Institute and 8Department of Psychology, University of California,
Berkeley, CA 94720
*Current affiliation: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, VA 24016
This PDF file includes
Supplementary Table 1 & 2
Supplementary Fig 1
Supplementary Table 1 Demographics of included studies in the meta-analysis.
Reference
# of subjects
Task
(Akitsuki and Decety, 2009)
26
Valence rating
(Botvinick et al., 2005)
12
Observation
(Cheetham et al., 2009)
16
Button press
(Costantini et al., 2008)
13
Observation
(Decety et al., 2010)
22
Observation
(Gu and Han, 2007)
12
Valence rating
(Gu et al., 2010)
18
Valence rating
(Han et al., 2009)
24
Valence rating
(Jackson et al., 2005)
15
Valence rating
(Jackson et al., 2006)
34
Valence rating
(King et al., 2006)
12
Empathetic decision making
(Lamm et al., 2007)
17
Perspective taking
(Lamm et al., 2007)
18
Valence rating
(Lamm and Decety, 2008)
18
Valence rating
(Lamm et al., 2010)
24
Valence rating
(Mathur et al., 2010)
28
Valence rating
(Morrison et al., 2004)
11
Observation
(Morrison et al., 2007)
(Morrison and Downing,
2007)
(Ochsner et al., 2008)
14
Observation
16
Hit/miss judgment
13
Observation
(Olsson et al., 2007)
(Osborn and Derbyshire,
2010)
(Saarela et al., 2007)
14
Observation
15
Valence rating
12
Observation
(Singer et al., 2004)
16
Observation
(Singer et al., 2006)
16
Observation
(Ushida et al., 2008)
15
Observation
(Xu et al., 2009)
33
Valence rating
(Zaki et al., 2007)
13
Observation
Supplementary Table 2. Brain regions involved in empathetic pain perception
Voxel
ALE
x
y
z
Area
Label
2405
0.084
-40
14
0
L anterior insula
0.041
-30
-4
-14
L amygdala
0.036
-16
-8
-8
L globus pallidus
0.033
-38
-2
4
L middle-posterior insula
0.029
-48
8
8
44
L inferior frontal gyrus
0.028
-46
0
24
6
L premotor area
0.026
-38
-2
16
L middle-posterior insula
2298
0.084
40
20
-4
47
R inferior frontal gyrus
0.032
46
28
6
45
R inferior frontal gyrus
0.032
26
-2
-14
R amygdala
1999
0.075
-2
24
32
32
L anterior cingulate cortex
0.057
0
-2
36
24
Anterior cingulate cortex
0.050
-8
6
40
32
L anterior cingulate cortex
0.031
0
10
54
6
L supplementary motor area
506
0.053
52
-30
34
2
R somatosensory cortex
408
0.047
-54
-28
34
40
L inferior parietal lobule
0.020
-44
-38
38
40
L inferior parietal lobule
302
0.033
12
-6
12
R thalamus
154
0.041
-2
42
18
9
L medial prefrontal cortex
150
0.028
-42
-68
-8
19
L fusiform gyrus
0.027
-44
-72
6
37
L inferior temporal gyrus
143
0.038
-38
-48
50
40
L inferior parietal lobule
131
0.040
36
-4
14
R middle-posterior insula
117
0.027
48
4
30
6
R premotor area
0.024
44
2
42
6
R premotor area
55
0.026
-10
-12
6
L thalamus
40
0.028
30
-82
2
19
R middle occipital gyrus
35
0.027
-30
-64
-26
L cerebellum
PFDR < 0.05, k > 30, voxel size = 2x2x2 mm. L, left; R, right.
A
NC
BDC
AIC
ACC
Overall accuracy
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
BD
C
AI
C
1
AI
C
2
AI
C3
AC
C
1
AC
C
2
AC
C
3
BD
C
N
NC
0.0
B
Overall RT (ms)
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
2
C
3
AC
C
1
AC
C
2
AC
C
3
AI
C
AI
1
C
AI
C
0
Supplementary Fig. 1 (A) Overall response accuracy across all experimental conditions. AIC
patients had marginally lower accuracy than NC (P = 0.05) and BDC (P = 0.06). ACC patients did
not show statistical alternation compared to NC and BDC (both Ps > 0.05). (B) Overall RT across all
experimental conditions. There is no statistically significant difference between AIC or ACC patients
and controls (all Ps > 0.05). Error bars (where relevant) represent 95% confidence interval.
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