Stimulation-Produced Analgesia (TENS and Acupuncture)

Snyder, Max; Shaparin, Naum

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-18005-8_24

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 31 publications

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“…The neurophysiological mechanism underlying the effect of social touch on pain are not entirely clear. Treatments that include tactile stimulation, such as massage or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), activate mechanoreceptors that can inhibit the nociceptive input entering the spinal cord (Weinrich and Weinrich, 1990;Sufka and Price, 2002;Snyder and Shaparin, 2019). Beyond this segmental pain-inhibitory mechanism, affective, social touch may activate top-down pain-inhibitory mechanisms through cortical and sub-cortical brain regions (Löken and Olausson, 2010;Björnsdotter and Olausson, 2011;McGlone et al, 2014;Meijer et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction Matters: The Effect of Touching the Social Robot PARO on Pain and Stress is Stronger When Turned ON vs. OFF

2022

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Social touch between humans, as well as between humans and animals, was previously found to reduce pain and stress. We previously reported that touching a social robot can also induce a reduction in pain ratings. However, it is unclear if the effect that touching a robot has on pain perception is due to its appearance and its pleasant touch, or due to its ability to socially interact with humans. In the current experiment, we aimed to assess the contribution of the interactive quality to pain perception. We assessed the effect of touching the social robot PARO on mild and strong pain ratings and on stress perception, on a total of 60 healthy young participants. The robot either interacted with participants (ON group, n = 30) or was turned off (OFF group, n = 30). Touching the robot induced a decrease in mild pain ratings (compared to baseline) only in the ON group while strong pain ratings decreased similarly in both the ON and the OFF groups. The decrease in mild pain ratings in the ON group was significantly greater in participants with a higher positive perception of the interaction with PARO. We conclude that part of the effect that touching the robot has on pain stems from its interactive features.

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