(340) Stroop Task, but not a Pain-Specific Stroop Task, is Associated with Clinical and Experimental Pain in Older Adults

Abstract

Chronic pain is a cause of disability in older individuals and is commonly associated with executive function deficits. In particular, cognitive inhibitory processes have been previously reported to decline with age and in relation to pain; however, no studies have focused on older individuals with and without pain. The present study investigated cognitive inhibitory processes using a computer adapted Stroop task including neutral, congruent, incongruent and pain-specific paradigms in older (60-93 years old) participants in the Neuromodulatory Examination of Pain and Mobility Across the Lifespan (NEPAL) study. A subset of the sample completed demographic, clinical pain assessments followed by a multi-modal quantitative sensory testing (QST) battery and the Stroop paradigm. There were significant differences between older individuals with (n=20) and without (n=34) chronic pain with regards to Stroop-interference and Stroop-facilitation scores (p 0.05). Similarly, Stroop interference and facilitation were inversely correlated to self-reported pain experienced while performing physical activities and cold detection thresholds (p's 0.05). Our findings suggest that inhibitory control as measured by the Stroop task are associated with clinical and experimental pain in older adults with performance deficits in those with chronic pain. These deficits were not related to attentional bias towards pain words; thus, it is possible that the significant decrements in Stroop performance reaches a ceiling effect, with no further decrements in the pain-specific Stroop performance. Future research examining pain and aging interactions in relation to cognitive inhibitory processes may improve our understanding of the impact of pain-related information on executive function in aging.