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How words impact on pain

INTRODUCTION: The wording used before and during painful medical procedures might significantly affect the painfulness and discomfort of the procedures. Two theories might account for these effects: the motivational priming theory (Lang, 1995, American Psychologist, 50, 372) and the theory of neural...

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Autores principales: Ritter, Alexander, Franz, Marcel, Miltner, Wolfgang H. R., Weiss, Thomas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6749494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31368674
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1377
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author Ritter, Alexander
Franz, Marcel
Miltner, Wolfgang H. R.
Weiss, Thomas
author_facet Ritter, Alexander
Franz, Marcel
Miltner, Wolfgang H. R.
Weiss, Thomas
author_sort Ritter, Alexander
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: The wording used before and during painful medical procedures might significantly affect the painfulness and discomfort of the procedures. Two theories might account for these effects: the motivational priming theory (Lang, 1995, American Psychologist, 50, 372) and the theory of neural networks (Hebb, 1949, The organization of behavior. New York, NY: Wiley; Pulvermuller, 1999, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 253; Pulvermüller and Fadiga, 2010, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11, 351). METHODS: Using fMRI, we investigated how negative, pain‐related, and neutral words that preceded the application of noxious stimuli as priming stimuli affect the cortical processing and pain ratings of following noxious stimuli. RESULTS: Here, we show that both theories are applicable: Stronger pain and stronger activation were observed in several brain areas in response to noxious stimuli preceded by both, negative and pain‐related words, respectively, as compared to preceding neutral words, thus supporting motivational priming theory. Furthermore, pain ratings and activation in somatosensory cortices, primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, thalamus, putamen, and precuneus were even stronger for preceding pain‐related than for negative words supporting the theory of neural networks. CONCLUSION: Our results explain the influence of wording on pain perception and might have important consequences for clinical work.
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spelling pubmed-67494942019-09-23 How words impact on pain Ritter, Alexander Franz, Marcel Miltner, Wolfgang H. R. Weiss, Thomas Brain Behav Original Research INTRODUCTION: The wording used before and during painful medical procedures might significantly affect the painfulness and discomfort of the procedures. Two theories might account for these effects: the motivational priming theory (Lang, 1995, American Psychologist, 50, 372) and the theory of neural networks (Hebb, 1949, The organization of behavior. New York, NY: Wiley; Pulvermuller, 1999, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 253; Pulvermüller and Fadiga, 2010, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11, 351). METHODS: Using fMRI, we investigated how negative, pain‐related, and neutral words that preceded the application of noxious stimuli as priming stimuli affect the cortical processing and pain ratings of following noxious stimuli. RESULTS: Here, we show that both theories are applicable: Stronger pain and stronger activation were observed in several brain areas in response to noxious stimuli preceded by both, negative and pain‐related words, respectively, as compared to preceding neutral words, thus supporting motivational priming theory. Furthermore, pain ratings and activation in somatosensory cortices, primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, thalamus, putamen, and precuneus were even stronger for preceding pain‐related than for negative words supporting the theory of neural networks. CONCLUSION: Our results explain the influence of wording on pain perception and might have important consequences for clinical work. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019-08-01 /pmc/articles/PMC6749494/ /pubmed/31368674 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1377 Text en © 2019 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Ritter, Alexander
Franz, Marcel
Miltner, Wolfgang H. R.
Weiss, Thomas
How words impact on pain
title How words impact on pain
title_full How words impact on pain
title_fullStr How words impact on pain
title_full_unstemmed How words impact on pain
title_short How words impact on pain
title_sort how words impact on pain
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6749494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31368674
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1377
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