Pain and Suffering: Insights from the Brain
Dr. Predrag Petrovic, Neuroscience, Karolinska Hospital
The relation between pain and suffering is complex and hard to grasp. While “pain” may suggest a nociceptive input to the brain, “suffering” suggest a psychological unpleasant state. In the present talk I will outline how unpleasant emotions (including suffering) and pain may be anatomically, functionally and evolutionary related in the brain. I will show that pain processing, pain anticipation, social pain and empathy for pain activate similar regions in the insula and the caudal anterior cingulate cortex, and suggest some mechanisms for how these states may be induced.