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In studies of anxiety and other affective disorders, objectively measured physiological responses have commonly been used as a proxy for measuring subjective experiences associated with pathology. However, this commonly adopted "biosignal" approach has recently been called into question on the grounds that subjective experiences and objective physiological responses may dissociate. We performed machine-learning-based analyses on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to assess this issue in the case of fear. Although subjective fear and objective physiological responses were correlated in general, the respective whole-brain multivoxel decoders for the two measures were different. Some key brain regions such as the amygdala and insula appear to be primarily involved in the prediction of physiological reactivity, whereas some regions previously associated with metacognition and conscious perception, including some areas in the prefrontal cortex, appear to be primarily predictive of the subjective experience of fear. The present findings are in support of the recent call for caution in assuming a one-to-one mapping between subjective sufferings and their putative biosignals, despite the clear advantages in the latter's being objectively and continuously measurable in physiological terms.

Empathy is a multi-dimensional concept allowing humans to understand the emotions of others and respond adaptively from a social perspective. This mental process, essential to social interactions, has attracted the attention of many scholars from different fields of study but the blooming interest for empathy in cognitive neurosciences has rekindled this interest. This paper reviews the growing literature stemming from studies using brain stimulation techniques that have investigated directly or indirectly the different components of empathy, including resonance, self-other discrimination, and mentalizing. Some studies have also ventured toward the modulation of this complex process and toward the investigation of different components in populations that show reduced empathic skills. We argue that brain stimulation techniques have the potential to make a unique contribution to the field of empathy research with their exclusive capacity, compared to other brain imaging techniques, to modulate the neural systems involved in the distinct components of this process. Provided the development of innovative ecological paradigms that will put people in actual social interactions as well as comprehensive and adaptive models that can integrate research from different domains, the ultimate goal of this research domain is to devise protocols that can modulate empathy in people with developmental, neurological and psychiatric disorders., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)