Connectivity analysis of generalized epileptic discharges

Adresses e-mail : sadeghiye hashem@yahoo.com, sadeghiye@ut.ac.it (H. Sadeghiyeh) The present study aimed to examine the gender differences in empathy for pain at a sensorimotor level. Previous studies using single-pulse TMS have shown a reduction in amplitude of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) while subjects observing needles penetrating hand of a human model which was specific to the muscle subjects observed being pricked. Twenty-five subjects (thirteen females and twelve males) participated in the study. Their TMS-induced MEPs were recorded from their right first dorsal interosseus (FDI) muscle of index finger during watching various clips depicting needles penetrating the same FDI muscle of right hand of a model. There were twelve types of clips, including pictures of hands of a woman, a man, a child and an apple, which was either pinpricked by a needle, touched by a Q-tip or at rest. Each clip was shown to the subjects eighteen times in a completely random sequence. Electromyography signals were recorded through an amplifier of an ANT ERP recording system and analysed by ASA-Lab software. Results had been shown that women had larger MEP inhibited amplitude than men in all the stimuli. However, there were no significant differences between MEP amplitudes of different types of models’ hands. The gender differences of MEPs between subjects indicate greater sensorimotor empathy in women, which is in correspondence with greater subjective responses of women to the painful clips (state empathy), which were obtained through a Visual Analogue Scale. Therefore, upon these results, we can conclude that women’s stronger empathic response to observing pain in others go beyond just a subjective level and extend to a very automatic and sensorimotor level. Women are hard-wired to embody the pain of others more intensely, and this could prepare them to take action towards others’ pain more rapidly. Further reading