Psychosomatic medicine
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Psychosomatic medicine · Nov 2018
The Influence of Pain-Related Expectations on Intensity Perception of Nonpainful Somatosensory Stimuli.
The extent to which pain-related expectations, known to affect pain perception, also affect perception of nonpainful sensations remains unclear, as well as the potential role of unpredictability in this context. ⋯ Thus, the expectation of pain affects inferential processes not only for subsequent painful but also for nonpainful bodily stimuli, with unpredictability moderating these effects, and only when the threat of pain remains present due to partial reinforcement.
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Psychosomatic medicine · Nov 2018
Transforming Pain With Prosocial Meaning: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.
Contextual factors can transform how we experience pain, particularly if pain is associated with other positive outcomes. Here, we test a novel meaning-based intervention. Participants were given the opportunity to choose to receive pain on behalf of their romantic partners, situating pain experience in a positive, prosocial meaning context. We predicted that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a key structure for pain regulation and generation of affective meaning, would mediate the transformation of pain experience by this prosocial interpersonal context. ⋯ The vmPFC has a key role in transforming the meaning of pain, which is associated with a cascade of positive psychological and brain effects, including changes in affective meaning, value, and pain-specific neural circuits.
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Psychosomatic medicine · Nov 2018
Emotional Modulation of Pain and Spinal Nociception in Sexual Assault Survivors.
Sexual assault (SA) is associated with an increased risk for chronic pain and affective distress. Given that emotional processes modulate pain (e.g., negative emotions enhance pain, positive emotions inhibit pain), increased pain risk in SA survivors could stem from a disruption of emotional modulation processes. ⋯ These findings suggest that SA survivors have difficulty emotionally engaging brain-to-spinal cord mechanisms to modulate spinal nociception. A disruption of descending inhibition plus hyperalgesia could contribute to comorbidity between sexual trauma and chronic pain.
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Psychosomatic medicine · Nov 2018
Comparative StudyFrom Anticipation to the Experience of Pain: The Importance of Visceral Versus Somatic Pain Modality in Neural and Behavioral Responses to Pain-Predictive Cues.
The aim of this study was to compare behavioral and neural anticipatory responses to cues predicting either somatic or visceral pain in an associative learning paradigm. ⋯ Conditioned emotional responses to pain-predictive cues are modality specific and enhanced for the visceral modality, suggesting that pain anticipation is shaped by the salience of painful stimuli. Common but also modality-specific neural mechanisms are involved during cue-pain learning, whereas extinction of cued responses seems unaffected by modality. Future research should examine potential implications for the pathophysiology of chronic pain conditions, especially chronic visceral pain.
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Psychosomatic medicine · Nov 2018
Reduced Fear-Conditioned Pain Modulation in Experienced Meditators: A Preliminary Study.
Mindfulness-based practice is a form of cognitive/affective training that may help reduce suffering by attenuating maladaptive anticipatory processes. This study's objective was to examine the pain modulating impact of classical fear learning in meditation practitioners. ⋯ These results highlight potential mechanisms underlying mindfulness-related hypoalgesia, relevant to clinical conditions in which repeated pain exposure might reinforce hyperalgesic processes through fear conditioning.