This best illustrates that the experience of pain is influenced by top-down processing.
Top-down processing is a level of a perceptual system which is based on how the brain utilizes information that has already been conveyed into the brain by one or more of the sensory systems (vision, touch, or hearing). Top-down processing begins with thoughts which move down to lower-level of the perceptual system such as the senses. With top-down processing, an individual’s experience of pain may be increased when he is aware that others are experiencing pain.
