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Exploring attentional bias for real-world, pain-related information in chronic musculoskeletal pain using a novel change detection paradigm

Exploring attentional bias for real-world, pain-related information in chronic musculoskeletal pain using a novel change detection paradigm
Exploring attentional bias for real-world, pain-related information in chronic musculoskeletal pain using a novel change detection paradigm
Objectives: Attentional biases for pain-related words and images have commonly been reported in individuals with chronic pain. In former studies, however, pain-related stimuli have been presented without context, for example facial expressions of pain with no accompanying information regarding the location, severity, or cause of pain or injury. The present study investigated attentional biases for pain-related information using complex, real-world scenes in an ecologically valid experimental paradigm.

Methods: Participants withchronic musculoskeletal pain (n= 20) and healthy, pain-free controls (n= 23) completed a version of the change detection paradigm, the flicker task, which requires participants to detect a single difference between two otherwise identical versions of the same scene. These change-scenes were presented in a continuous cycle for approximately 3 minutes, with an unrelated distractor-scene interspersed between. Both pain-related and neutral scenes were used in four experimental conditions: change-pain/distractor-pain, change-pain/distractor-neutral, change-neutral/distractor-pain, and change-neutral/distractor-neutral.

Results: Individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain, relative to healthy controls, took significantly longer to detect changes when the change-scene was pain-related. Within-group analysis showed healthy control participants to take significantly longer to detect changes in neutral change-scenes compared to pain-related change-scenes.

Discussion: This study is the first to show individuals with chronic pain possess attentional biases for pain-related information presented as part of complex, real-world scenes. Possible future research includes the use of real-world scenes in visual-search paradigms modifying attentional biases, and exploration into the relations and effects of combined cognitive biases (e.g., attention, memory, and interpretation) in chronic pain.
0749-8047
680-688
Schoth, Daniel E.
73f3036e-b8cb-40b2-9466-e8e0f341fdd5
Ma, Yizhu
f5892dd4-bf25-4aa6-9204-98ac739c9da6
Liossi, Christina
fd401ad6-581a-4a31-a60b-f8671ffd3558
Schoth, Daniel E.
73f3036e-b8cb-40b2-9466-e8e0f341fdd5
Ma, Yizhu
f5892dd4-bf25-4aa6-9204-98ac739c9da6
Liossi, Christina
fd401ad6-581a-4a31-a60b-f8671ffd3558

Schoth, Daniel E., Ma, Yizhu and Liossi, Christina (2015) Exploring attentional bias for real-world, pain-related information in chronic musculoskeletal pain using a novel change detection paradigm. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 31 (8), 680-688. (doi:10.1097/AJP.0000000000000149). (PMID:25171638)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Objectives: Attentional biases for pain-related words and images have commonly been reported in individuals with chronic pain. In former studies, however, pain-related stimuli have been presented without context, for example facial expressions of pain with no accompanying information regarding the location, severity, or cause of pain or injury. The present study investigated attentional biases for pain-related information using complex, real-world scenes in an ecologically valid experimental paradigm.

Methods: Participants withchronic musculoskeletal pain (n= 20) and healthy, pain-free controls (n= 23) completed a version of the change detection paradigm, the flicker task, which requires participants to detect a single difference between two otherwise identical versions of the same scene. These change-scenes were presented in a continuous cycle for approximately 3 minutes, with an unrelated distractor-scene interspersed between. Both pain-related and neutral scenes were used in four experimental conditions: change-pain/distractor-pain, change-pain/distractor-neutral, change-neutral/distractor-pain, and change-neutral/distractor-neutral.

Results: Individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain, relative to healthy controls, took significantly longer to detect changes when the change-scene was pain-related. Within-group analysis showed healthy control participants to take significantly longer to detect changes in neutral change-scenes compared to pain-related change-scenes.

Discussion: This study is the first to show individuals with chronic pain possess attentional biases for pain-related information presented as part of complex, real-world scenes. Possible future research includes the use of real-world scenes in visual-search paradigms modifying attentional biases, and exploration into the relations and effects of combined cognitive biases (e.g., attention, memory, and interpretation) in chronic pain.

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More information

Published date: 28 August 2015
Organisations: Psychology

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 369118
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/369118
ISSN: 0749-8047
PURE UUID: 7da6e08f-748b-4251-9118-c5a8f6198372
ORCID for Christina Liossi: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0627-6377

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Date deposited: 25 Sep 2014 11:59
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:24

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Author: Yizhu Ma

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