The role of spatial attention in attentional control over pain: an experimental investigation

Abstract

Distraction is a common method of pain control that is often found to be effective. However, it is still largely unexplored which components of distraction are responsible for its effects. This study investigated the role of the spatial location of task-relevant stimuli on the effectiveness of distraction. Two experiments were performed in which the spatial location of visual stimuli during nociceptive input was manipulated. In a first experiment we tested whether the reaction to nociceptive information is slower when visual stimuli are presented at a different spatial location than at the same spatial location. In a second experiment, we examined whether the manipulation of spatial location affects the experience of pain. Overall, results indicated that directing attention away from the pain location results into a slower response to painful stimuli and a reduction of pain. It may be concluded that the analgesic effect of distraction is at least partly the result of the spatial location of the distracting information.3

The predictive value of attentional bias towards pain-related information in chronic pain patients: A diary study

“…One explanation for this finding may be related to the finding that people who selectively attend to pain-related information are more sensitive for the presence of noxious stimuli [23] and have more difficulty in disengaging their attention from the presence of noxious stimuli [56]. A focus on pain cues or pain has indeed often found to be related to higher pain severity [42,64] and more disability, i.e., worse task performance on concurrent tasks [9,55]. These findings are also in line with prominent theoretical frameworks that predict attentional bias to be an exacerbating or maintaining factor in chronic pain.…”

No pain no gain? Pursuing a competing goal inhibits avoidance behavior

“…Intensity of the electrocutaneous stimulus was 1.00 mA. Previous studies have demonstrated that this intensity is easy to tolerate, and is perceived as moderately aversive and threatening [37,40].…”

How efficient is the orienting of spatial attention to pain? An experimental investigation

“…Experimental duration was approximately 30 minutes. Figure 1 depicts a schematic representation of the experimental set-up, which is similar to previous work [38,41]. Participants sat in front of a table, which was equipped with a chin-rest to maintain the head in a median position.…”

“…For this purpose we used a cross-modal spatial cueing paradigm [41]. Participants detected whether pain stimuli were delivered to the left or right hand.…”

“…Attentional orienting is typically demonstrated by faster responses to valid compared to invalid trials, and can be decomposed into several components. Faster detection in valid relative to baseline trials reflects the benefits of engaging attention on the cued location, whereas slower detection in invalid relative to baseline trials results from the costs of disengaging attention from the cued location and shifting to the other location [27,41].…”