Adapting

An interesting research study that shows the differences in brain activity in response to painful procedures. A control group of people with no medical background and an experimental group of doctors were exposed to video clips of acupuncture in the hands, feet, and mouth. As they were exposed, their brains were scanned for areas of increased activity. The control group's brains lit up in areas involved in processing pain and controlling the panic response. The doctors' brains (dubbed the "detached experts") lit up in areas involved in higher functions (self-awareness and emotional regulation).

The accompanying surveys indicate similar levels of empathy and sensitivity to pain, though the experimental group ranked the pain and unpleasantness of the recipient lower than the control group did. This showed the researchers that the experimental group wasn't "just more emotionally numb than [the] controls or more cavalier in the face of pain."

So what? The results suggest that higher brain functions block the activation of the pain circuit. This would allow for emotional detachment from the pain of others (we wince when we see other people get hurt because of the way felt or observed pain is integrated in the neural circuit) by maintaining a distinction between self and others. This would in turn allow people to observe or even inflict pain in order to provide medical care for an ultimately good outcome.

Fascinating.