Somatosensory attentional modulations during pain-related movement execution.
Exp Brain Res
; 238(5): 1169-1176, 2020 May.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32236640
ABSTRACT
Pain serves to protect against bodily threat, and therefore initiates protective responses such as attending toward threat-relevant information. Since pain is often exacerbated by executing movements, these motor actions may serve as cues for pain. Up to date, however, pain-related attention during movement remains largely unexplored. While it has been shown that the preparation of a pain-related movement leads to enhanced processing of somatosensory information, it is unclear how the actual execution of a movement interacts with somatosensory attention. In the current study, we examined whether somatosensory processing is enhanced at a moving body part when the movement is expected to be associated with pain. Participants were asked to execute hand movements which were occasionally followed by a pain stimulus. To measure somatosensory attention, a task-irrelevant, innocuous tactile probe was presented on either hand to evoke a somatosensory evoked potential (SEP). The results showed an elevation of the N120 SEP at the hand performing a potentially painful movement, indicating heightened attention toward tactile information at the threatened moving hand compared to the non-threatened hand. Additionally, the P200 SEP also showed enlarged responses when performing a pain-related movement compared to a no-pain-related movement. These results show that not only the anticipation, but also the execution of pain-related movements, may modulate the processing of somatosensory input, driven by attentional processes.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Bases de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Atención
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Potenciales Evocados Somatosensoriales
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Percepción del Tacto
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Percepción del Dolor
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Dolor Nociceptivo
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Actividad Motora
Límite:
Adolescent
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Adult
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Female
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Humans
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Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Exp Brain Res
Año:
2020
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Bélgica