Neural activity was analyzed using standard fMRI analysis procedure that examine neural activity during training of anterior insula regulation. The measures include BOLD signal analysis (reflecting neural activity strengths) as well as functional connectivity analysis (that examine the interaction between different brain regions).

From the initial population of 37 participants 5 had to be excluded because of high head movement during fMRI acquisition. This is a standard procedure in fMRI studies given that the analysis is very susceptible to movement artifacts.

Subjects were required to rate their empathic feeling towards painful pictures on a Likert Scale ranging from 1-9 (1 = not at all and 9 = very painful). The effects of training on the empathy for pain were analyzed comparing the feedback group with the controls group. For each subject differences were calculated between pictures that were preceded by a training compared to a no-training block. Within the context of the present design we expected that training-induced increases in anterior insula activity should lead to higher pain empathy ratings in the training group as compared to the control group.

From the initial population of 37 participants 5 had to be excluded because of high head movement during fMRI acquisition. This is a standard procedure in fMRI studies given that the analysis is very susceptible to movement artifacts.