Pain or nociception? Subjective experience mediates the effects of acute noxious heat on autonomic responses.

ABSTRACT: Nociception reliably elicits an autonomic nervous system (ANS) response. Because pain and ANS circuitry interact on multiple spinal, subcortical, and cortical levels, it remains unclear whether autonomic responses are simply a reflexive product of noxious stimulation regardless of how stimulation is consciously perceived or whether the experience of pain mediates ANS responses to noxious stimulation. To test these alternative predictions, we examined the relative contribution of noxious stimulation and individual pain experience to ANS responses in healthy volunteers who underwent 1 or 2 pain assessment tasks. Participants received 8 seconds of thermal stimulation of varied temperatures and judged pain intensity on every trial. Skin conductance responses and pupil dilation responses to sti

SUBMITTER: Mischkowski D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5901905 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature