Sharpe L, Brookes M, Jones E, Gittins C, Wufong E, Nicholas M K
School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
University of Western Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Eur J Pain. 2017 Feb;21(2):385-396. doi: 10.1002/ejp.936. Epub 2016 Oct 24.
This study aimed to investigate the effects of fear of pain (FOP) and threat on attentional biases, using eye-tracking methods.
One hundred and seven undergraduate students were randomized to receive threatening or reassuring information about the cold pressor task; and divided into high and low FOP groups. Participants completed the dot-probe task, while their eye movements were tracked.
Results showed that those who received threatening information were less likely to have their first fixation on pain words, particularly affective pain words. Furthermore, under conditions of high threat, the high FOP group who did fixate on affective pain words, fixated more quickly than for sensory pain words, whereas the opposite was the case under low threat. In regression analyses, initial vigilance towards affective pain words was a significant predictor of reporting pain more quickly on the cold pressor.
Taken together, these results suggest that initial vigilance of affective pain stimuli predicts actual hypervigilance to an acute experimental pain task. However, under conditions of high threat, participants show evidence of avoidance of affective pain words, even though when they do fixate on these stimuli, the high FOP group does so more quickly. These results confirm that attentional processes, characterized by vigilance avoidance, appear important.
Interventions that change attention towards pain to reduce vigilance and subsequent avoidance may be indicated to improve pain outcomes.
本研究旨在使用眼动追踪方法，调查疼痛恐惧（FOP）和威胁对注意偏向的影响。
107名本科生被随机分为两组，分别接受关于冷加压任务的威胁性或安慰性信息；并分为高FOP组和低FOP组。参与者完成点探测任务，同时对他们的眼动进行追踪。
结果显示，那些收到威胁性信息的人首次注视疼痛相关词汇，尤其是情感性疼痛词汇的可能性较小。此外，在高威胁条件下，确实注视了情感性疼痛词汇的高FOP组，其注视速度比感觉性疼痛词汇更快，而在低威胁条件下情况则相反。在回归分析中，对情感性疼痛词汇的初始警觉性是在冷加压试验中更快报告疼痛的一个重要预测指标。
综合来看，这些结果表明，对情感性疼痛刺激的初始警觉性预示着对急性实验性疼痛任务的实际过度警觉。然而，在高威胁条件下，参与者表现出回避情感性疼痛词汇的迹象，尽管当他们确实注视这些刺激时，高FOP组的注视速度更快。这些结果证实，以警觉性回避为特征的注意过程似乎很重要。
改变对疼痛的注意力以降低警觉性和随后的回避行为的干预措施，可能有助于改善疼痛结局。
