Emotional modulation of autonomic responses to painful trigeminal stimulation

Dynamic expansion of alert responses to incoming painful stimuli following tool use

“…When the body is threatened by an incoming dangerous stimulus, the SCR can be used as a measure of fear and pain anticipation (Armel and Ramachandran, 2003;Hägni et al, 2008;Guterstam et al, 2011). Furthermore, previous evidence has showed that SCR increases in response to affective stimuli (Armel and Ramachandran, 2003;Forgiarini et al, 2011), pain perception Williams and Rhudy, 2009;Romano et al, 2014b) and cognitive conflict (Kobayashi et al, 2007). In particular, here we adopted a protocol recently designed to elicit reliable anticipatory responses to the vision of threatening stimuli approaching the body (Romano et al, 2014a;Romano and Maravita, 2014).…”

Why do you smile at me while I'm in pain? — Pain selectively modulates voluntary facial muscle responses to happy faces

“…In accordance with the motivational priming hypothesis (Lang, 1995), which postulates that processing of unpleasant information is facilitated while processing of pleasant information is inhibited under aversive affect, unpleasant stimuli increase and pleasant stimuli decrease pain perception and physiological responses to pain (see Arnold et al, 2008;de Wied and Verbaten, 2001;KenntnerMabiala and Pauli, 2005;Kenntner-Mabiala et al, 2007;Meagher et al, 2001;Williams and Rhudy, 2009). However, most studies examined the influence of emotional stimuli on pain perception, only, although the motivational priming hypothesis would also predict a reverse influence: pain as an aversive state should facilitate the processing of unpleasant stimuli and inhibit the processing of pleasant stimuli.…”

Brain stimulation modulates the autonomic nervous system, rating of perceived exertion and performance during maximal exercise

“…Furthermore, verum acupuncture significantly altered the brain response to pain stimuli by decreasing the activation of the temporal gyrus 74. In addition, the pain modulation system is influenced by factors such as cognition and emotion,75 76 which also modulate the ANS activity77 and can alter the perception of pain. Moreover, there is evidence that the left hemisphere is related more to positive emotional feelings43–45 and that vagal nerve stimulation induces high levels of pleasant sensations 67.…”