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Decreased Pain Perception by Unconscious Emotional Pictures

Pain perception arises from a complex interaction between a nociceptive stimulus and different emotional and cognitive factors, which appear to be mediated by both automatic and controlled systems. Previous evidence has shown that whereas conscious processing of unpleasant stimuli enhances pain perc...

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Autores principales: Peláez, Irene, Martínez-Iñigo, David, Barjola, Paloma, Cardoso, Susana, Mercado, Francisco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5073127/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27818642
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01636
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author Peláez, Irene
Martínez-Iñigo, David
Barjola, Paloma
Cardoso, Susana
Mercado, Francisco
author_facet Peláez, Irene
Martínez-Iñigo, David
Barjola, Paloma
Cardoso, Susana
Mercado, Francisco
author_sort Peláez, Irene
collection PubMed
description Pain perception arises from a complex interaction between a nociceptive stimulus and different emotional and cognitive factors, which appear to be mediated by both automatic and controlled systems. Previous evidence has shown that whereas conscious processing of unpleasant stimuli enhances pain perception, emotional influences on pain under unaware conditions are much less known. The aim of the present study was to investigate the modulation of pain perception by unconscious emotional pictures through an emotional masking paradigm. Two kinds of both somatosensory (painful and non-painful) and emotional stimulation (negative and neutral pictures) were employed. Fifty pain-free participants were asked to rate the perception of pain they were feeling in response to laser-induced somatosensory stimuli as faster as they can. Data from pain intensity and reaction times were measured. Statistical analyses revealed a significant effect for the interaction between pain and emotional stimulation, but surprisingly this relationship was opposite to expected. In particular, lower pain intensity scores and longer reaction times were found in response to negative images being strengthened this effect for painful stimulation. Present findings suggest a clear pain perception modulation by unconscious emotional contexts. Attentional capture mechanisms triggered by unaware negative stimulation could explain this phenomenon leading to a withdrawal of processing resources from pain.
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spelling pubmed-50731272016-11-04 Decreased Pain Perception by Unconscious Emotional Pictures Peláez, Irene Martínez-Iñigo, David Barjola, Paloma Cardoso, Susana Mercado, Francisco Front Psychol Psychology Pain perception arises from a complex interaction between a nociceptive stimulus and different emotional and cognitive factors, which appear to be mediated by both automatic and controlled systems. Previous evidence has shown that whereas conscious processing of unpleasant stimuli enhances pain perception, emotional influences on pain under unaware conditions are much less known. The aim of the present study was to investigate the modulation of pain perception by unconscious emotional pictures through an emotional masking paradigm. Two kinds of both somatosensory (painful and non-painful) and emotional stimulation (negative and neutral pictures) were employed. Fifty pain-free participants were asked to rate the perception of pain they were feeling in response to laser-induced somatosensory stimuli as faster as they can. Data from pain intensity and reaction times were measured. Statistical analyses revealed a significant effect for the interaction between pain and emotional stimulation, but surprisingly this relationship was opposite to expected. In particular, lower pain intensity scores and longer reaction times were found in response to negative images being strengthened this effect for painful stimulation. Present findings suggest a clear pain perception modulation by unconscious emotional contexts. Attentional capture mechanisms triggered by unaware negative stimulation could explain this phenomenon leading to a withdrawal of processing resources from pain. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC5073127/ /pubmed/27818642 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01636 Text en Copyright © 2016 Peláez, Martínez-Iñigo, Barjola, Cardoso and Mercado. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Peláez, Irene
Martínez-Iñigo, David
Barjola, Paloma
Cardoso, Susana
Mercado, Francisco
Decreased Pain Perception by Unconscious Emotional Pictures
title Decreased Pain Perception by Unconscious Emotional Pictures
title_full Decreased Pain Perception by Unconscious Emotional Pictures
title_fullStr Decreased Pain Perception by Unconscious Emotional Pictures
title_full_unstemmed Decreased Pain Perception by Unconscious Emotional Pictures
title_short Decreased Pain Perception by Unconscious Emotional Pictures
title_sort decreased pain perception by unconscious emotional pictures
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5073127/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27818642
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01636
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