Department of Psychology, The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA.
Ann Behav Med. 2019 Nov 9;53(12):1055-1068. doi: 10.1093/abm/kaz016.
The tendency to inhibit anger (anger-in) is associated with increased pain. This relationship may be explained by the negative affectivity hypothesis (anger-in increases negative affect that increases pain). Alternatively, it may be explained by the cognitive resource hypothesis (inhibiting anger limits attentional resources for pain modulation).
A well-validated picture-viewing paradigm was used in 98 healthy, pain-free individuals who were low or high on anger-in to study the effects of anger-in on emotional modulation of pain and attentional modulation of pain. Painful electrocutaneous stimulations were delivered during and in between pictures to evoke pain and the nociceptive flexion reflex (NFR; a physiological correlate of spinal nociception). Subjective and physiological measures of valence (ratings, facial/corrugator electromyogram) and arousal (ratings, skin conductance) were used to assess reactivity to pictures and emotional inhibition in the high anger-in group.
The high anger-in group reported less unpleasantness, showed less facial displays of negative affect in response to unpleasant pictures, and reported greater arousal to the pleasant pictures. Despite this, both groups experienced similar emotional modulation of pain/NFR. By contrast, the high anger-in group did not show attentional modulation of pain.
These findings support the cognitive resource hypothesis and suggest that overuse of emotional inhibition in high anger-in individuals could contribute to cognitive resource deficits that in turn contribute to pain risk. Moreover, anger-in likely influenced pain processing predominantly via supraspinal (e.g., cortico-cortical) mechanisms because only pain, but not NFR, was associated with anger-in.
抑制愤怒（愤怒抑制）的倾向与疼痛增加有关。这种关系可以用负性情感假说（愤怒抑制增加负性情感，从而增加疼痛）来解释。或者，也可以用认知资源假说（抑制愤怒限制了对疼痛调节的注意力资源）来解释。
在 98 名健康、无痛的个体中，使用了一种经过充分验证的图片观看范式，这些个体的愤怒抑制程度较低或较高，以研究愤怒抑制对疼痛的情绪调节和疼痛的注意力调节的影响。在观看图片期间和之间，会对个体进行电刺激以引发疼痛和伤害性屈肌反射（NFR；脊髓伤害感受的生理相关物）。使用主观和生理测量（评分、面部/皱眉肌肌电图）来评估对图片的反应性和高愤怒抑制组的情绪抑制。
高愤怒抑制组报告的不愉快程度较低，对不愉快图片的面部负性表情显示较少，对愉快图片的唤醒度较高。尽管如此，两组的疼痛/NFR 都经历了相似的情绪调节。相比之下，高愤怒抑制组并没有表现出对疼痛的注意力调节。
这些发现支持认知资源假说，并表明高愤怒抑制个体过度使用情绪抑制可能导致认知资源不足，进而导致疼痛风险增加。此外，愤怒抑制可能主要通过皮质（例如皮质-皮质）机制影响疼痛处理，因为只有疼痛而不是 NFR 与愤怒抑制有关。
