Abstract
Background
In this eye‐tracking study, we evaluated pain‐related biases in orienting and maintenance of gaze within impending touch versus impending pain tasks and examined features of pain resilience as individual difference influences on potential biases.
Methods
Gaze preferences of healthy adults (25 women, 39 men) were assessed during standardized pain‐neutral (P‐N) image pair presentations (2000ms) of an impending touch task versus an impending pain task whereby image pair offsets were followed by potential non‐painful touch and potential pain stimulation, respectively.
Results
Within each task, participants were significantly more likely to fixate first upon pain images in P‐N pairs and maintain gaze on these images for longer overall durations during trials. Between task comparisons indicated pain‐related biases in orienting and maintenance were significantly stronger when image pairs signaled potential pain rather than impending touch. Finally, within the impending pain task, higher scores on the behavior perseverance dimension of pain resilience were related to shorter first fixation durations and overall gaze durations toward pain images.
Conclusions
Supporting specific threat interpretation model premises, comparatively more threatening external pain cues for impending pain were characterized by gaze biases reflecting pronounced early attentional capture and subsequent prolonged vigilance. However, elevations in self‐reported behavioral perseverance in spite of pain corresponded to an increased capacity to disengage from pain images that signaled potential pain.
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from Wiley: European Journal of Pain: Table of Contents http://bit.ly/2EnDvAc
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