Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
J Pediatr Psychol. 2011 Jan;36(1):84-94. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsq063. Epub 2010 Jul 23.
This study examined whether increasing the demand for central cognitive processing involved in a distraction task, by involving the child in ongoing, effortful interaction with the distraction stimulus, would increase children's tolerance for cold pressor pain.
Seventy-nine children ages 6-15 years underwent a baseline cold pressor trial followed by two cold pressor trials in which they received interactive distraction (i.e., used voice commands to play a videogame) or passive distraction (in which they merely watched the output from the same videogame segment) in counterbalanced order. Both distraction conditions were presented via a virtual reality-type helmet.
As expected, children demonstrated significant improvement in pain tolerance during distraction relative to baseline. Children showed the greatest improvement during the interactive distraction task.
The effects of distraction on children's cold pressor pain tolerance are significantly enhanced when the distraction task also includes greater demands for central cognitive processing.
本研究旨在考察通过让儿童参与与分心刺激物持续、费力的互动，从而增加中央认知处理需求，是否会增加儿童对冷加压疼痛的耐受力。
79 名 6-15 岁的儿童进行了基础冷加压试验，随后进行了两次冷加压试验，他们在这两次试验中接受了互动式分心（即使用语音命令玩电子游戏）或被动式分心（即只是观看相同电子游戏片段的输出），两种分心条件以交替的方式呈现。两种分心条件都是通过虚拟现实式头盔呈现的。
正如预期的那样，与基础状态相比，儿童在分心状态下的疼痛耐受力显著提高。在互动式分心任务中，儿童的提高幅度最大。
当分心任务还包括对中央认知处理的更高需求时，分心对儿童冷加压疼痛耐受力的影响会显著增强。
