Imaging how attention modulates pain in humans using functional MRI

Current clinical and experimental literature strongly supports the phenomenon of reduced pain perception whilst attention is distracted away from noxious stimuli. This study used functional MRI to elucidate the underlying neural systems and mechanisms involved. An analogue of the Stroop task, the co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain (London, England : 1878) England : 1878), 2002-02, Vol.125 (Pt 2), p.310-319
Main Authors: BANTICK, Susanna J, WISE, Richard G, PLOGHAUS, Alexander, CLARE, Stuart, SMITH, Stephen M, TRACEY, Irene
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attention - physiology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - anatomy & histology
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Pain - physiopathology
Pain Measurement
Somesthesis and somesthetic pathways (proprioception, exteroception, nociception)
interoception
electrolocation. Sensory receptors
Temperature
Time Factors
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:Current clinical and experimental literature strongly supports the phenomenon of reduced pain perception whilst attention is distracted away from noxious stimuli. This study used functional MRI to elucidate the underlying neural systems and mechanisms involved. An analogue of the Stroop task, the counting Stroop, was used as a cognitive distraction task whilst subjects received intermittent painful thermal stimuli. Pain intensity scores were significantly reduced when subjects took part in the more cognitively demanding interference task of the counting Stroop than in the less demanding neutral task. When subjects were distracted during painful stimulation, brain areas associated with the affective division of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and orbitofrontal regions showed increased activation. In contrast, many areas of the pain matrix (i.e. thalamus, insula, cognitive division of the ACC) displayed reduced activation, supporting the behavioural results of reduced pain perception.
ISSN:0006-8950
1460-2156
DOI:10.1093/brain/awf022