Phasic and tonic pain differentially impact the interruptive function of pain.

ABSTRACT: The interruptive effect of painful experimental stimulation on cognitive processes is a well-known phenomenon. This study investigated the influence of pain duration on the negative effects of pain on cognition. Thirty-four healthy volunteers performed a rapid serial visual presentation task (RSVP) in which subjects had to detect (visual detection task) and count the occurrence of a target letter (working memory task) in two separate sessions while being stimulated on the left volar forearm with either short (2 sec) or long (18 sec) painful heat stimuli of equal subjective intensity. The results show that subjects performed significantly worse in the long pain session as indexed by decreased detection and counting performance. Interestingly, this effect on performance was also observed dur

SUBMITTER: Sinke C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4335041 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature