Publications by authors named "A J Gonzalez-Villar"
Purpose: Conditioned Pain Modulation (CPM) is a useful tool for testing the functionality of endogenous pain modulation. However, inconsistent results have been obtained in clinical populations, possibly due to the wide variety of CPM protocols used and the influence of demographic and psychological characteristics of the individuals assessed.
Methods: We tested the sensitivity and reliability of four commonly used CPM paradigms in a sample of 58 healthy participants.
Intransitive gestures are expressive and symbolic, whereas pantomimes are object-related actions. These gestures convey different meanings depending on whether they are directed toward (TB) or away from the body (AB). TB gestures express mental states (intransitive) or hygiene/nutritional activities (pantomime), while AB gestures modify the behaviour of the observer (intransitive) or demonstrate tool use with an object (pantomime).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- * The study tested how affective touch influences pain sensitization through a Temporal Summation of Second Pain (TSSP) protocol, comparing TSSP alone, vibrotactile stimulation, and CT stimulation using a robotic brush.
- * Results showed that CT stimulation significantly lowered pain perception and physiological responses (like heart rate and N2-P2 brain activity) during TSSP compared to vibrotactile stimulation, suggesting that CT activity may help alleviate central pain sensitization.
Article Synopsis
- Alcohol-related cues significantly affect craving levels, particularly in binge drinkers (BDs), who show cognitive and neurofunctional changes linked to their drinking patterns.
- A study involving 36 university students, split between BDs and abstainers, examined how these groups processed memories associated with alcohol-related contexts using fMRI.
- Results indicated that BDs exhibited greater brain activation in specific areas related to mental imagery and reward processing when recalling alcohol-related memories, suggesting a potential link to increased alcohol craving and seeking behavior.
The single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs4680 in the catechol-O-methyltransferase gene ( COMT ) is a missense variant (Val158Met) associated with altered activity of the COMT enzyme and suggested as a predictive feature for developing some chronic pain conditions. However, there are controversial results on its role in fibromyalgia (FM). Here, the SNP Val158Met was analyzed in 294 FM patients (without comorbidities) and 209 healthy controls (without chronic pain).
View Article and Find Full Text PDF