Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2002 - Volume 25, Issue 04  


Short Communication

What role does intersubjectivity play in the facial expression of pain?

C. Richard Chapman a1 and Yoshio Nakamura a1
a1 Pain Research Center, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84108 crc20@utah.edu yn5@utah.edu

Abstract

The facial expression of pain is the end product of a complex process that is, in part, emotional. The evolutionary study of facial expression must account for the social nature of human consciousness and should address the questions of why empathy exists, the adaptive importance of empathy, and whether facial expression is a mechanism of empathy and second-person consciousness.