Abstract
Background
Threat is hypothesized to affect the degree to which pain captures attention but little is known about its impact on dynamic courses of attention towards pain. In this eye-tracking study, we evaluated pain-related visual attention biases during image pair presentations in comparatively lower versus higher threat conditions.
Methods
Gaze biases of healthy adults (47 women, 35 men) were assessed during image presentation phases standardized across (1) a modified visual dot probe task featuring painful-neutral (pain) and neutral-neutral-contrast (neutral) image pair blocks (lower threat context) and (2) an impending pain task wherein the same image pair blocks, respectively, cued potentially painful post-offset somatosensory stimuli (higher threat context) and its absence.
Results
Across tasks, participants were more often oriented towards, gazed longer at, and fixated more times on pain images in pain block trials, though trait fear of pain was not related to any gaze biases. Critically, however, participants reported more state fear and displayed significantly fewer initial fixations, longer first and overall gaze durations, and more unique fixations on pain images when image pairs signaled possible post-offset pain stimulation.
Conclusions
Results underscored stronger overall attention maintenance on visual pain cues in a higher threat (impending pain) context.
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