Pain Influences Several Levels of Attention

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid von Bueren Jarchow ◽  
Bogdan P. Radanov ◽  
Lutz Jäncke
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Divided Attention ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Attentional Deficits ◽  
Control Subjects ◽  
Chronic Pain Patients ◽  
Divided Attention Task ◽  
Pain Stimuli ◽  
Pain Patients

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to examine to what extent chronic pain has an impact on various attentional processes. To measure these attention processes a set of experimental standard tests of the “Testbatterie zur Aufmerksamkeitsprüfung” (TAP), a neuropsychological battery testing different levels of attention, were used: alertness, divided attention, covert attention, vigilance, visual search, and Go-NoGo tasks. 24 chronic outpatients and 24 well-matched healthy control subjects were tested. The control subjects were matched for age, gender, and education. The group of chronic pain patients exhibited marked deficiencies in all attentional functions except for the divided attention task. Thus, the data supports the notion that chronic pain negatively influences attention because pain patients` attention is strongly captivated by the internal pain stimuli. Only the more demanding divided attention task has the capability to distract the focus of attention to the pain stimuli. Therefore, the pain patients are capable of performing within normal limits. Based on these findings chronic pain patients' attentional deficits should be appropriately evaluated and considered for insurance and work related matters. The effect of a successful distraction away from the pain in the divided attention task can also open new therapeutic aspects.

scholarly journals Emotional and Neurobehavioural Status in Chronic Pain Patients

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
He Shuchang ◽  
He Mingwei ◽  
Jia Hongxiao ◽  
Wu Si ◽  
Yang Xing ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Back Pain ◽  
Lower Back Pain ◽  
Mood State ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Chronic Lower Back Pain ◽  
Control Subjects ◽  
Lower Back ◽  
Chronic Pain Patients ◽  
Pain Patients

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the emotional and neurobehavioural status of patients suffering from chronic pain.METHODS: Fifteen male patients with chronic lower back pain and 15 healthy control subjects were studied for approximately six months. Pain was measured using a visual analogue scale. The WHO Neurobehavioral Core Test Battery (NCTB) was used to assess neurobehavioural effects of environmental and occupational exposures.RESULTS: Visual analogue scale results demonstrated a modest range of reported pain (mean [± SD] 62.0±10.8) in chronic pain patients, whereas control subjects reported no measurable pain. With the NCTB, it was found that scores of negative mood state, including anger-hostility, depression-dejection, fatigue-inertia and tension-anxiety in pain patients were significantly higher than scores in the control subjects. By contrast, scores of positive mood state (vigour-activity) in chronic pain patients were lower than those in the control group. The NCTB scores of the Santa Ana Dexterity and Pursuit Aiming II tests in chronic lower back pain patients were lower than those of the control group. Scores for other NCTB sub-tests, including the Digit Span, Benton Visual Retention and Digit Symbol tests, were not significantly different compared with controls.CONCLUSIONS: Chronic lower back pain patients had more negative mood and less positive mood than controls. These patients also demonstrated neuromotor deficits in coordination and reaction time. Further studies are required to examine possible neurological mechanisms and research potential intervention strategies for patients suffering from chronic pain.

Do chronic pain patients ‘Stroop‘ on pain stimuli?

1998 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Pincus ◽  
Lindsay Fraser ◽  
Shirley Pearce
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Chronic Pain Patients ◽  
Pain Stimuli ◽  
Pain Patients

Subjective cognitive impairment: Functional MRI during a divided attention task

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 457-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Rodda ◽  
T. Dannhauser ◽  
D.J. Cutinha ◽  
S.S. Shergill ◽  
Z. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Divided Attention ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Neurocognitive Performance ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Subjective Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Functional Changes ◽  
Attentional Deficits ◽  
Divided Attention Task

AbstractBackgroundIndividuals with subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) have persistent memory complaints but normal neurocognitive performance. For some, this may represent a pre-mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Given that attentional deficits and associated brain activation changes are present early in the course of AD, we aimed to determine whether SCI is associated with brain activation changes during attentional processing.MethodsEleven SCI subjects and 10 controls completed a divided attention task during functional magnetic resonance imaging.ResultsSCI and control groups did not differ in sociodemographic, neurocognitive or behavioural measures. When group activation during the divided attention task was compared, the SCI group demonstrated increased activation in left medial temporal lobe, bilateral thalamus, posterior cingulate and caudate.ConclusionThis pattern of increased activation is similar to the pattern of decreased activation reported during divided attention in AD and may indicate compensatory changes. These findings suggest the presence of early functional changes in SCI; longitudinal studies will help to further elucidate the relationship between SCI and AD.

scholarly journals Microsaccades and covert attention: Evidence from a continuous, divided attention task

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aimee Elizabeth Ryan ◽  
Brendan Keane ◽  
Guy Wallis
Keyword(s):  
Divided Attention ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Forced Response ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Response Behavior ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Response Data ◽  
Divided Attention Task ◽  
Response Task ◽  
The Relationship

A substantial question in understanding expert behavior is isolating where experts look, and which aspects of their environment they process. While tracking the position of gaze provides some insight into this process, our ability to attend covertly to regions of space other than the current point of fixation, severely limits the diagnostic power of such data. Over the past decade, evidence has emerged suggesting that microscopic eye movements present during periods of fixation may be linked to the spatial distribution of covert attention, potentially offering a powerful tool for studying expert behavior. To date, the majority of studies in this field have tested the link under the constraints of a trial by trial, forced-response task. In the current study we sought to examine the effect when participants performed a continuous, divided-attention task, with the hope of bridging the gap to a range of more ecological, real-world tasks. We report various aspects of the eye movement and response data including (i) the relationship between microsaccades and drift correction, (ii) response behavior in brief time periods immediately following a microsaccade,         (iii) response behavior briefly preceding a microsaccade. Analysis failed to reveal a link between task accuracy and the direction of a microsaccade. Most striking however, we found evidence for a timelocked relationship between the side of space responded to and the direction of the most recent microsaccade. The paper hence provides preliminary evidence that microsaccades may indeed be used to track the ongoing allocation of spatial attention.

scholarly journals Sleep Quality in Chronic Pain Patients

2002 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 844-848 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kemal Sayar ◽  
Meltem Arikan ◽  
Tulin Yontem
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Sleep Quality ◽  
Pain Intensity ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Poor Sleep ◽  
Poor Sleep Quality ◽  
Control Subjects ◽  
Chronic Pain Patients ◽  
Healthy Control ◽  
Pain Patients

Objective: Chronic pain patients have been reported to complain about poor sleep quality. Research aimed at delineating the predictors of poor sleep has produced conflicting results. Depressive mood and pain severity are the most frequently encountered predictors. This study aimed to find out whether chronic pain patients differed from healthy control subjects who had no pain on subjective sleep quality measures and, if so, which factors contributed most to poorer sleep quality. Method: We compared 40 patients with chronic pain who met inclusion criteria with 40 healthy control subjects on the measures of sleep quality, anxiety, and depression. The predictors of sleep quality were investigated with multiple regression in the pain group. Results: Chronic pain patients had higher scores than did healthy control subjects on the Beck Anxiety Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). At the bivariate level, pain intensity, anxiety, and depression correlated significantly with poorer sleep quality. At the multivariate level, depression was found to be the only significant factor correlating with the quality of sleep, and the model explained 34% of the variance. Conclusions: Chronic pain patients suffer from poor sleep quality—a function of depressed mood rather than pain intensity, duration, or anxiety. However, it is difficult to draw a causal relation in this relatively small sample size. Besides, our study sample comprised a mostly psychiatric population and may not represent the general group of patients with chronic pain.

Interacting With Virtual Objects via Embodied Avatar Hands Increases the Illusion of Presence, Increases Distraction, and Modulates VR Analgesia Effectiveness: A Randomized Crossover Trial.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hunter Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Divided Attention ◽  
Pain Perception ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Pain Stimulus ◽  
Virtual Objects ◽  
Thermal Pain ◽  
Divided Attention Task ◽  
Being There ◽  
Pain Stimuli

Abstract The current study introduces a new experimental environment and apparatus for exploring cognitive factors in pain. Interacting with virtual objects via embodied avatar hands increased the illusion of “being there” in the virtual world, increased VR analgesia for acute pain, and reduced accuracy on an attention demanding task. Twenty-four healthy volunteer college students participated in this within-subject randomized crossover design study. During Phase 1, each participant received brief thermal pain stimuli during interactive embodied avatar VR vs. passive VR (no avatar and no interactivity), VR treatment order randomized. After each pain stimulus, participants provided subjective 0-10 ratings of pain. Compared to the passive VR condition, during the interactive avatar VR, participants reported significant reductions in 1). worst pain, 2). pain unpleasantness, 3). time thinking about pain and 4). they had significantly more fun during the pain stimulus (p = .000 for each). During Phase 2, participants performed a divided attention task in each VR condition. Participants made significantly more errors on the divided attention task during the interactive avatar VR condition, compared to passive VR, implicating an attention mechanism for how virtual reality reduces pain and helping understand how VR influences pain perception.

Specific Computerized Attention Training in Stroke and Traumatic Brain-Injured Patients

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Sturm ◽  
B. Fimm ◽  
A. Cantagallo ◽  
N. Cremel ◽  
P. North ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Divided Attention ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Baseline Period ◽  
Specific Training ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Baseline Phase ◽  
Computerized Training ◽  
Brain Injured ◽  
Divided Attention Task ◽  
Injured Patients

Abstract: In a multicenter European approach, the efficacy of the AIXTENT computerized training programs for intensity aspects (alertness and vigilance) and selectivity aspects (selective and divided attention) of attention was studied in 33 patients with brain damage of vascular and traumatic etiology. Each patient received training in one of two most impaired of the four attention domains. Control tests were performed by means of a standardized computerized attention test battery (TAP) comprising tests for the four attention functions. Assessment was carried out at the beginning and at the end of a four week baseline period and after the training period of 14 one-hour sessions. At the end of the baseline phase, there was only slight but significant improvement for the most complex attention function, divided attention (number of omissions). After the training, there were significant specific training effects for both intensity aspects (alertness and vigilance) and also for the number of omissions in the divided attention task. The application of inferential single case procedures revealed a high number of significant improvements in individual cases after specific training of alertness and vigilance problems. On the other hand, a non specific training addressing selectivity aspects of attention lead either to improvement or deterioration of alertness and vigilance performance. The results corroborate the findings of former studies with the same training instrument but in patients with different lesion etiologies.

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