Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University , Montreal, Quebec H3A 0C7, Canada ; Faculty of Dentistry, McGill University , Montreal, Quebec H3A 0C7, Canada ; Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University , 68159 Mannheim, Germany.
Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University , Montreal, Quebec H3A 0C7, Canada ; Faculty of Dentistry, McGill University , Montreal, Quebec H3A 0C7, Canada.
eNeuro. 2015 Sep 17;2(4). doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0029-15.2015. eCollection 2015 Jul-Aug.
When in pain, pain relief is much sought after, particularly for individuals with chronic pain. In analogy to augmentation of the hedonic experience ("liking") of a reward by the motivation to obtain a reward ("wanting"), the seeking of pain relief in a motivated state might increase the experience of pain relief when obtained. We tested this hypothesis in a psychophysical experiment in healthy human subjects, by assessing potential pain-inhibitory effects of pain relief "won" in a wheel of fortune game compared with pain relief without winning, exploiting the fact that the mere chance of winning induces a motivated state. The results show pain-inhibitory effects of pain relief obtained by winning in behaviorally assessed pain perception and ratings of pain intensity. Further, the higher participants scored on the personality trait novelty seeking, the more pain inhibition was induced. These results provide evidence that pain relief, when obtained in a motivated state, engages endogenous pain-inhibitory systems beyond the pain reduction that underlies the relief in the first place. Consequently, such pain relief might be used to improve behavioral pain therapy, inducing a positive, perhaps self-amplifying feedback loop of reduced pain and improved functionality.
当疼痛时，人们非常渴望缓解疼痛，特别是对于慢性疼痛患者。类比于增强奖励的愉悦体验（“喜欢”）和获得奖励的动机（“想要”），在有动机的状态下寻求缓解疼痛可能会增加获得缓解时的疼痛体验。我们在一项健康人类受试者的心理物理学实验中测试了这一假设，通过评估在幸运轮游戏中“赢得”的缓解疼痛与没有赢得的缓解疼痛相比，是否具有潜在的抑制疼痛的效果，利用了仅仅赢得的机会就会引起动机状态的事实。结果表明，在行为评估的疼痛感知和疼痛强度评分中，“赢得”缓解疼痛会产生抑制疼痛的效果。此外，参与者在个性特质寻求新奇方面的得分越高，疼痛抑制作用就越强。这些结果表明，当在有动机的状态下获得缓解疼痛时，会激活内源性的疼痛抑制系统，而不仅仅是缓解最初疼痛的基础。因此，这种缓解疼痛的方法可能用于改善行为性疼痛治疗，产生减少疼痛和改善功能的积极、可能自我增强的反馈循环。
