TY - JOUR
T1 - The effect of induced optimism on early pain processing
T2 - indication by contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) and the sympathetic skin response (SSR)
AU - Basten-Günther, Johanna
AU - Jutz, Laura
AU - Peters, Madelon L.
AU - Priebe, Janosch A.
AU - Lautenbacher, Stefan
PY - 2023/9/19
Y1 - 2023/9/19
N2 - Situationally induced optimism has been shown to influence several components of experimental pain. The aim of the present study was to enlarge these findings for the first time to the earliest components of the pain response by measuring contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) and the sympathetic skin response (SSR). Forty-seven healthy participants underwent two blocks of phasic thermal stimulation. CHEPs, the SSR and self-report pain ratings were recorded. Between the blocks of stimulation, the ‘Best Possible Self’ imagery and writing task was performed to induce situational optimism. The optimism manipulation was successful in increasing state optimism. It did, however, neither affect pain-evoked potentials nor the SSR nor self-report pain ratings. These results suggest that optimism does not alter early responses to pain. The higher-level cognitive processes involved in optimistic thinking might only act on later stages of pain processing. Therefore, more research is needed targeting different time frames of stimulus processing and response measures for early and late pain processing in parallel.
AB - Situationally induced optimism has been shown to influence several components of experimental pain. The aim of the present study was to enlarge these findings for the first time to the earliest components of the pain response by measuring contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) and the sympathetic skin response (SSR). Forty-seven healthy participants underwent two blocks of phasic thermal stimulation. CHEPs, the SSR and self-report pain ratings were recorded. Between the blocks of stimulation, the ‘Best Possible Self’ imagery and writing task was performed to induce situational optimism. The optimism manipulation was successful in increasing state optimism. It did, however, neither affect pain-evoked potentials nor the SSR nor self-report pain ratings. These results suggest that optimism does not alter early responses to pain. The higher-level cognitive processes involved in optimistic thinking might only act on later stages of pain processing. Therefore, more research is needed targeting different time frames of stimulus processing and response measures for early and late pain processing in parallel.
KW - EEG
KW - optimism
KW - pain
KW - pain-evoked potentials
KW - resilience
U2 - 10.1093/scan/nsad042
DO - 10.1093/scan/nsad042
M3 - Article
SN - 1749-5016
VL - 18
JO - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
JF - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
IS - 1
M1 - nsad042
ER -