Research Group Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Belgium; Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium.
Research Group Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Belgium; Center for Excellence on Generalization Research in Health and Psychopathology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Belgium; Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
Behav Res Ther. 2016 Sep;84:35-44. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2016.07.004. Epub 2016 Jul 21.
Previous research shows that goal-directed behavior might be modulated by cues that predict (dis)similar outcomes. However, the literature investigating this modulation with pain outcomes is scarce. Therefore, this experiment investigated whether environmental cues predicting pain or reward modulate defensive pain responding. Forty-eight healthy participants completed a joystick movement task with two different movement orientations. Performing one movement was associated with a painful stimulus, whereas performance of another movement was associated with reward, i.e. lottery tickets. In a subsequent task, participants learned to associate three different cues withpain, reward, or neither of the two. Next, these cues were integrated in the movement task. This study demonstrates that in general, aversive cues enhance and appetitive cues reduce pain-related fear. Furthermore, we found that incongruence between the outcomes predicted by the movement and the cue results in more oscillatory behavior, i.e., participants were more willing to perform a painful movement when a cue predicting reward was simultaneously presented, and vice versa. Similarly, when given a choice, participants preferred to perform the reward movement, unless there was an incongruence between the outcomes predicted by the movements and cues. Taken together, these results provide experimental evidence that environmental cues are capable of modulating pain-related fear and avoidance behavior.
先前的研究表明，目标导向行为可能会受到预测（不）相似结果的线索的调节。然而，关于疼痛结果的这种调节的文献却很少。因此，本实验研究了预测疼痛或奖励的环境线索是否会调节防御性疼痛反应。48 名健康参与者完成了一个带有两个不同运动方向的操纵杆运动任务。执行一个运动与疼痛刺激有关，而执行另一个运动与奖励有关，即彩票。在随后的任务中，参与者学习将三个不同的线索与疼痛、奖励或两者都不相关联。接下来，这些线索被整合到运动任务中。本研究表明，一般来说，厌恶线索会增强，而奖赏线索会减少与疼痛相关的恐惧。此外，我们发现，运动和线索预测的结果之间的不一致会导致更多的振荡行为，即当同时呈现预测奖励的线索时，参与者更愿意执行疼痛运动，反之亦然。同样，当有选择时，参与者更愿意执行奖励运动，除非运动和线索预测的结果之间存在不一致。总之，这些结果提供了实验证据，表明环境线索能够调节与疼痛相关的恐惧和回避行为。
