We feel the pain of others

A study in the UK demonstrates that many of us feel itchy or sore when we see the same type of struggle because of injury.

For the majority of humanity, the saying "I feel your pain" is just a way for us to express sympathy for the physical pain or mental anguish of others. But psychologists from Birmingham University, UK, believe that some individuals really feel pain when they see others struggle or scream for pain. To demonstrate, they invited 123 students in the school to participate in a test.

According to Telegraph, experts for students watch videos and photos of injury situations of athletes and patients in hospitals. Among the pictures that students saw when players broke their legs, the tennis player dislocated and the patient grimaced when the nurse injected the medicine. All students say that at least one photo or video suggests "an emotional response" in them, such as disgust, fear or sadness.

But more importantly, a third of the students said they also felt pain when viewing the images. Some people experience tingling or pain, others feel pain like a knife. The pain felt only briefly in some people, but it survived for a few seconds in many others.

Artwork of corbis.com.

Scientists repeated the experiment with 10 students in the group who felt pain, itching or bitterness. While students watch photos, videos of researchers conduct their brain scans. Then, brain scans of 10 people said they felt nothing when they witnessed the pain of others. Brain scans of two groups were compared.

The results showed that the areas of the brain processing emotions of both groups were active when they viewed photos and videos. However, the intensity of activity of the pain sensing areas in the "super sensitive" group is stronger and longer than that of the other group. This shows that their feeling of pain really exists, not the product of imagination.

"Our findings explain the fact that only a few individuals help people who are in pain while many others are indifferent. A human part actually reacts physically to seeing others hurt. or show pain. Helping people with pain is a way for them to get rid of their discomfort in their own bodies , " said Dr. Stuart Derbyshire, lead researcher.

"Super-sensitive" students told Derbyshire that they did not like watching horror, war, action movies and often avoiding traumatic news reports.

Telegraph said the Birmingham University study also explains the phenomenon of some people "feeling pain in function" even though they do not suffer from any disease.

But why do some individuals feel the pain of others, while many others do not have that reaction?

Scientists believe that the ability to feel the pain of the same kind occurs in the evolution of mankind. In prehistoric times, that ability encouraged our ancestors to build closer relationships.