Dorado Alejandro, Sitges Carolina, van der Meulen Marian, González-Roldán Ana M
Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience and Clinical Psychology, Research Institute of Health Sciences (IUNICS) and Balearic Islands Health Research Institute (IdISBa), University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), Palma, Spain.
Institute of Health and Behaviour, Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
Eur J Pain. 2025 Feb;29(2):e4732. doi: 10.1002/ejp.4732. Epub 2024 Sep 18.
Chronic pain is one of the most common health conditions among older adults, triggering various disruptions in information processing across attentional, emotional, and somatosensory domains. However, there is insufficient information about how these aspects interact and their potential contribution to the vulnerability of older adults to chronic pain. This study aimed to investigate potential alterations induced by chronic pain during aging in attentional aspects of tactile stimulation and to observe the influence of affective context.
Twenty-six older adults with chronic pain (70.00 ± 5.07 years; 11 males), 28 pain-free older adults (69.57 ± 3.96 years; 13 males) and 27 healthy younger adults (21.48 ± 1.80 years; 14 males) participated in the study. We compared the somatosensory evoked potentials elicited by frequent and deviant stimulation (probability 14%) applied when participants were viewing blocks of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral images from the International Affective Picture System.
During frequent stimulation, older adults with chronic pain showed higher P50 and N100 amplitudes compared to pain-free older adults and younger individuals. Furthermore, the older group with pain exhibited higher P300 amplitude during emotional contexts compared to neutral scenarios. During deviant stimulation, older adults with chronic pain exhibited higher P50 and N100 amplitudes compared to pain-free older adults but displayed typical age-related flattening during P300.
These findings indicate that chronic pain leads to a decline in the ability to habituate to non-painful irrelevant somatosensory stimuli, especially when it is presented in an emotional context.
In the present study, we have observed how older individuals suffering from chronic pain exhibit a decline in the habituation capacity of irrelevant somatosensory information. Furthermore, we have observed how the affective context in which these individuals are situated leads to an exacerbation of this deficit. Enhancing our comprehension of how aging and chronic pain interact to impact somatosensory processing could facilitate the tailoring of novel intervention strategies.
慢性疼痛是老年人中最常见的健康问题之一，会引发注意力、情绪和躯体感觉等多个领域信息处理的各种紊乱。然而，关于这些方面如何相互作用以及它们对老年人易患慢性疼痛的潜在影响，目前的信息还不足。本研究旨在调查衰老过程中慢性疼痛在触觉刺激的注意力方面所引发的潜在变化，并观察情感背景的影响。
26名患有慢性疼痛的老年人（70.00 ± 5.07岁；11名男性）、28名无疼痛的老年人（69.57 ± 3.96岁；13名男性）和27名健康的年轻人（21.48 ± 1.80岁；14名男性）参与了本研究。我们比较了在参与者观看国际情感图片系统中的愉悦、不愉快和中性图像组块时，由频繁刺激和偏差刺激（概率14%）诱发的躯体感觉诱发电位。
在频繁刺激期间，与无疼痛的老年人和年轻人相比，患有慢性疼痛的老年人表现出更高的P50和N100波幅。此外，与中性场景相比，疼痛的老年组在情感背景下表现出更高的P300波幅。在偏差刺激期间，与无疼痛的老年人相比，患有慢性疼痛的老年人表现出更高的P50和N100波幅，但在P300期间表现出典型的与年龄相关的波幅降低。
这些发现表明，慢性疼痛会导致对非疼痛性无关躯体感觉刺激的习惯化能力下降，尤其是在情感背景下呈现时。
在本研究中，我们观察到患有慢性疼痛的老年人如何表现出无关躯体感觉信息习惯化能力的下降。此外，我们还观察到这些个体所处的情感背景如何导致这种缺陷的加剧。加强我们对衰老和慢性疼痛如何相互作用以影响躯体感觉处理的理解，可能有助于制定新的干预策略。
