The influence of expectations and attention on conditioned pain modulation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) is a psychophysical experimental measure of endogenous pain inhibition in humans. Within this paradigm, one noxious stimulus, the conditioning stimulus (CS), reduces the pain perception from another heterotopic noxious stimulus, the test stimulus (TS). Cognitive processes are known to influence pain perception and might impact the underlying mechanisms of CPM.

Does movement preparation enhance attending to bodily sensations in the back in people with persistent low back pain?

Attention has been proposed to play an important role in persisting pain, with excessive attentional processes towards pain information leading to worse pain outcomes and maladaptive behaviors. Nevertheless, research on somatosensory attending during the anticipation of pain-related movements is still scarce. This study investigated if individuals with chronic and recurrent lower back pain compared to pain-free controls, show enhanced attending to somatosensory information in the back while anticipating back-recruiting movements.

Modulation of attention to pain by goal-directed action: a somatosensory evoked potentials approach.

Background: Attentional processes are modulated by current goal pursuit. While pursuing salient cognitive goals, individuals prioritize goal-related information and suppress goal-irrelevant ones. This occurs in the context of pain too, where nonpain cognitive goal pursuit was found to have inhibitory effects on pain-related attention.

Neural mechanisms underlying attentional bias modification in fibromyalgia patients: a double-blind ERP study.

There is a growing interest in the potential benefits of attentional bias modification (ABM) training in chronic pain patients. However, studies examining the effectiveness of ABM programs in fibromyalgia patients have demonstrated inconclusive effects on both behavioral indices and clinical symptoms. Additionally, underlying neural dynamics of ABM effects could yield new insights but remain yet unexplored.

Subliminal attentional bias modification training for itch.

Introduction: Itch is unpleasant and induces the urge to scratch. This is adaptive to remove the itch-inducing stimulus from the skin. Accordingly, itch draws attention to protect our bodily integrity.

Understanding Discrepancies in a Person's Fear of Movement and Avoidance Behavior: A Guide for Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Clinicians Who Support People With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain.

Generic self-report measures do not reflect the complexity of a person's pain-related behavior. Since variations in a person's fear of movement and avoidance behavior may arise from contextual and motivational factors, a person-centered evaluation is required-addressing the cognitions, emotions, motivation, and actual behavior of the person. Most musculoskeletal rehabilitation clinicians will recognize that different people with chronic pain have very different patterns of fear and avoidance behavior.

No Effect of Acute Balenine Supplementation on Maximal and Submaximal Exercise Performance in Recreational Cyclists.

Carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine) and its methylated analogues anserine and balenine are highly concentrated endogenous dipeptides in mammalian skeletal muscle that are implicated in exercise performance. Balenine has a much better bioavailability and stability in human circulation upon acute ingestion, compared to carnosine and anserine. Therefore, ergogenic effects observed with acute carnosine and anserine supplementation may be even more pronounced with balenine.

Pain E-motion Faces Database (PEMF): Pain-related micro-clips for emotion research.

A large number of publications have focused on the study of pain expressions. Despite the growing knowledge, the availability of pain-related face databases is still very scarce compared with other emotional facial expressions. The Pain E-Motion Faces Database (PEMF) is a new open-access database currently consisting of 272 micro-clips of 68 different identities.

No preconscious attentional bias towards itch in healthy individuals.

Rapidly attending towards potentially harmful stimuli to prevent possible damage to the body is a critical component of adaptive behavior. Research suggests that individuals display an attentional bias, i.e.

Goal adjustment and well-being after an acquired brain injury: the role of cognitive flexibility and personality traits.

Objective: The tendency to flexibly adjust goals that are hindered by chronic illness is related to indicators of wellbeing. However, cognitive flexibility is often impaired in persons with an acquired brain injury (ABI), possibly affecting the ability to flexibly adjust goals. In this study we examined whether cognitive flexibility is positively related with the ability to disengage from goals to reengage with goals in persons with ABI.

Attentional Bias Modification Training for Itch: A Proof-of-Principle Study in Healthy Individuals.

Itch draws our attention to allow imposing action against bodily harm (e.g., remove insects).

Brief mindfulness training can mitigate the influence of prior expectations on pain perception.

Background: Recent neuroimaging evidence suggests that mindfulness practice may mitigate the biasing influence of prior cognitive and emotional expectations on pain perception. The current study tested this hypothesis using a pain-cueing paradigm, which has reliably been shown to elicit conditioned hypoalgesic and hyperalgesic effects. Specifically, we aimed to investigate whether the instructed use of a mindfulness compared to a suppression strategy differentially modulates the magnitudes of conditioned hypoalgesia and hyperalgesia.

Motor action changes pain perception: a sensory attenuation paradigm in the context of pain.

A large body of evidence indicates how pain affects motor control, yet the way the motor system influences pain perception remains unclear. We present 2 experiments that investigated sensory attenuation of pain implementing a 2-alternative forced choice paradigm. Particularly, healthy participants received painful stimuli on a moving and nonmoving hand during the execution or the preparation of reaching motor actions.

Effects of combined theta burst stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on stress.

Objective: Research suggests that the combination of different non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), could enhance the effects of stimulation. Studies investigating the combination of tDCS and iTBS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) are lacking. In this within-subjects study, we evaluated the additive effects of iTBS with tDCS on psychophysiological measures of stress.

The time course of attentional biases in pain: a meta-analysis of eye-tracking studies.

Previous meta-analyses investigating attentional biases towards pain have used reaction time measures. Eye-tracking methods have been adopted to more directly and reliably assess biases, but this literature has not been synthesized in relation to pain. This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the nature and time course of attentional biases to pain-related stimuli in participants of all ages with and without chronic pain using eye-tracking studies and determine the role of task parameters and theoretically relevant moderators.

Physical or Cognitive Exertion Does Not Influence Cortical Movement Preparation for Rapid Arm Movements.

The contribution of central factors to movement preparation (e.g., the contingent negative variation [CNV]) and the influence of fatigue on such factors are still unclear, even though executive cognitive functions are regarded as key elements in motor control.

Hypervigilance for Bodily Sensations in the Back During a Movement Task in People With Chronic and Recurrent Low Back Pain.

Objectives: The current study assessed the role of hypervigilance for bodily sensations in the back in long-term low back pain problems.

Methods: People with chronic low back pain, recurrent low back pain, and no low back pain were compared on the extent to which they attended to somatosensory stimuli on the back during a movement task. To measure hypervigilance, somatosensory event-related potentials (SEPs) to task-irrelevant tactile stimuli on the back were measured when preparing movements in either a threatening or a neutral condition, indicated by a cue signaling possible pain on the back during movement or not.

Does experimentally induced pain-related fear influence central and peripheral movement preparation in healthy people and patients with low back pain?

Nonspecific chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a multifactorial disorder. Pain-related fear and altered movement preparation are considered to be key factors in the chronification process. Interactions between both have been hypothesized, but studies examining the influence of situational fear on movement preparation in low back pain (LBP) are wanting, as well as studies differentiating between recurrent LBP (RLBP) and CLBP.

Physical and cognitive exertion do not influence feedforward activation of the trunk muscles: a randomized crossover trial.

Fatigue arises during everyday activities, diminishes movement performance, and increases injury risk. Physical (PE) and cognitive exertion (CE) can induce similar feelings of fatigue, but it is not clear whether these also similarly affect movement performance. Therefore, this study examined the influence of PE and CE on anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) of trunk muscles, which are feedforward mechanisms that contribute to motor control and controlled movement.

Somatosensory attending to the lower back is associated with response speed of movements signaling back pain.

The present study investigated if preparing a movement that is expected to evoke pain results in hesitation to initiate the movement (i.e., avoidance) and, especially, if the allocation of attention to the threatened body part mediates such effect.

Motor simulation is disturbed when experiencing pain.

While the contribution of social processes to pain perception is well documented, surprisingly little is known about the influence of pain on social perception. In particular, an important question is how pain modulates the processing of other people's actions. To address this question, the current study tests, using automatic imitation, the hypothesis that pain interferes with motor simulation-that is, the processing of observed actions in the motor system.

Are Functional Brain Alterations Present in Low Back Pain? A Systematic Review of EEG Studies.

This systematic review analyzed available literature on functional brain alterations in low back pain (LBP) measured with electroencephalography (EEG), as until now evidence thereof was unclear. Four electronic databases were systematically searched the 10th of March 2018, resulting in 12 included studies. Studies showed a risk of bias of 37.

Goal reengagement is related to mental well-being, life satisfaction and acceptance in people with an acquired brain injury.

Objective: After an acquired brain injury (ABI), the achievement of previous life goals may no longer be feasible. This study examined whether self-reported disengagement from previous goals and reengagement towards new, more feasible goals, are associated with higher quality of life (QOL) and life satisfaction. We also examined whether acceptance mediated these relationships.