Dittmar Oliver, Baum Corinna, Schneider Raphaela, Lautenbacher Stefan
Physiological Psychology, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany.
Physiological Psychology, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany ; Institute of Psychology, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany.
J Pain Res. 2015 Aug 11;8:507-21. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S80990. eCollection 2015.
Hypervigilance to pain is the automatic prioritization of pain-related compared with other stimuli. The processing of threat information is influenced by negative contexts. Therefore, we intended to explore such context effects on hypervigilance to pain-cues, taking individual differences in self-reported vigilance to pain into consideration.
In all, 110 healthy subjects viewed task-irrelevant emotional facial expressions (anger, happy, neutral, and pain) overlaid in half of the trials with a fine grid. The instructed task was to indicate the presence/absence of this grid. A threatening context was established by applying electrical stimuli slightly below pain-threshold. Using scores of Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire, the sample was divided into high vs low pain vigilant subjects. Reaction times and event-related brain potentials were recorded.
No distinct attentional processing of pain faces (based on the event-related brain potentials) was observed as a function of high levels of self-reported vigilance to pain and contextual threat induction. High pain vigilant subjects showed generally enhanced processing of emotional and neutral faces as indicated by parameters of early (early posterior negativity) and late (late positive complex) processing stages. This enhancement was abolished when electro-stimuli were presented.
Contextual threat does not enhance the attentional capture of pain-cues when they are presented concurrently with competing task demands. The study could, however, replicate a generally enhanced attentional processing of emotional cues in high pain vigilant subjects. This underpins that hypervigilance to pain is related to changes in emotional processing.
与其他刺激相比，对疼痛的过度警觉是对与疼痛相关的刺激进行自动优先处理。威胁信息的处理会受到负面情境的影响。因此，我们打算探讨这种情境效应如何影响对疼痛线索的过度警觉，并考虑个体在自我报告的疼痛警觉方面的差异。
总共110名健康受试者观看了与任务无关的情绪性面部表情（愤怒、高兴、中性和疼痛），在一半的试验中这些表情上叠加了一个精细网格。指示的任务是指出该网格的存在与否。通过施加略低于疼痛阈值的电刺激来建立威胁情境。使用疼痛警觉和意识问卷的得分，将样本分为高疼痛警觉组和低疼痛警觉组。记录反应时间和事件相关脑电位。
未观察到作为自我报告的高疼痛警觉水平和情境威胁诱导函数的对疼痛面孔的明显注意加工（基于事件相关脑电位）。高疼痛警觉组受试者在早期（早期后负波）和晚期（晚期正复合体）加工阶段的参数表明，他们对情绪性和中性面孔的加工普遍增强。当呈现电刺激时，这种增强被消除。
当疼痛线索与竞争性任务需求同时呈现时，情境威胁不会增强对疼痛线索的注意捕获。然而，该研究能够重复高疼痛警觉组受试者对情绪线索的普遍增强的注意加工。这支持了对疼痛的过度警觉与情绪加工的变化有关。
