Department of Psychology, The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.
J Pain. 2010 Dec;11(12):1429-41. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2010.04.003. Epub 2010 Jun 16.
Sex differences in the processing and experience of emotion exist. The present study examined whether sex differences in emotion lead to sex differences in affective modulation of pain and spinal nociception (assessed by nociceptive flexion reflex, NFR). Participants were healthy men (n = 47) and women (n = 73). Prior to affective modulation testing, electrocutaneous pain sensitivity was assessed (NFR threshold, pain threshold, pain tolerance). Affective modulation of pain and NFR was then assessed by presenting pictures that vary in emotional valence and arousal (mutilation, attack, death, neutral, families, adventure, erotica) during which suprathreshold electrocutaneous stimulations were delivered. Subjective emotional reactions were assessed after every picture, and nociceptive reactions were assessed after every suprathreshold stimulus. Results indicated women had greater pain sensitivity and also responded more negatively to attack pictures and less positively to erotic pictures. But despite these differences, affective modulation of pain/NFR was not moderated by sex: erotic pictures inhibited pain/NFR and mutilation pictures enhanced pain/NFR. Together, this implies subjective emotional experience does not completely mediate picture-evoked modulation of pain/NFR, a supposition that was further supported by exploratory analyses that demonstrated picture-evoked modulation of pain/NFR was present even after controlling for intra- and inter-individual differences in emotional reactions to pictures. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.
Evidence suggests that women are more sensitive to experimental and clinical pain, but the mechanisms contributing to these sex differences are poorly understood. Affective processes are known to play a role in regulating pain signaling and pain experience; therefore, the present study examined whether sex differences in affective experience contribute to sex differences in pain. Results indicate that in healthy individuals affective processes may not contribute to sex differences in pain.
情绪的处理和体验存在性别差异。本研究考察了情绪的性别差异是否导致疼痛和脊髓伤害感受的情感调节存在性别差异（通过伤害性屈反射，NFR 评估）。参与者为健康男性（n=47）和女性（n=73）。在情感调节测试之前，评估了皮肤电痛觉敏感性（NFR 阈值、痛觉阈值、痛觉耐受）。然后通过呈现不同情绪效价和唤醒的图片（残害、攻击、死亡、中性、家庭、冒险、色情）来评估疼痛和 NFR 的情感调节，在此期间给予超阈值皮肤电刺激。每幅图片后评估主观情绪反应，每幅超阈值刺激后评估伤害性反应。结果表明，女性的痛觉敏感性更高，对攻击图片的反应更为消极，对色情图片的反应则不那么积极。但尽管存在这些差异，疼痛/NFR 的情感调节不受性别影响：色情图片抑制疼痛/NFR，残害图片增强疼痛/NFR。总之，这意味着主观情绪体验并不能完全介导图片诱发的疼痛/NFR 调节，探索性分析进一步支持了这一假设，即即使在控制了个体对图片的情绪反应的个体内和个体间差异后，仍然存在图片诱发的疼痛/NFR 调节。讨论了这些发现的意义和局限性。
有证据表明，女性对实验性和临床疼痛更为敏感，但导致这些性别差异的机制尚不清楚。情感过程已知在调节疼痛信号和疼痛体验中起作用；因此，本研究考察了情感体验的性别差异是否有助于疼痛的性别差异。结果表明，在健康个体中，情感过程可能不会导致疼痛的性别差异。
