Abstract
Although the evidence of the attentional bias of chronic pain individuals toward pain-related information is established in the literature, few studies examined the time course of attention toward pain stimuli and the role of pain catastrophizing on attentional engagement toward pain-related information. This study examined the time course of attention to pain-related information and the role of pain catastrophizing on attentional engagement for pain-related information. Participants were fifty young adult participants with chronic pain (35% male, 65% female; M = 21.8 years) who completed self-report questionnaires assessing pain catastrophizing levels (Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS)), depression (the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)), anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)), and pain disability (the Pain Disability Index: (PDI)). Attentional engagements to pain- and anger-related information were measured by the eye tracker. Significant interaction effects were found between (1) time and stimulus type for pain-related information (F (5, 245) = 11.55, p < 0.001) and (2) bias scores and pain catastrophizing (F (1, 48) = 6.736, p < 0.05). These results indicated that the degree of increase for pain bias scores were significantly greater than anger bias scores as levels of pain catastrophizing increased. Results of the present study provided the evidence for the attentional bias and information processing model which has clinical implications; high levels of pain catastrophizing may impair individuals' ability to cope with chronic pain by increasing attentional engagement toward pain-related information. The present study can add knowledge to attentional bias and pain research as this study investigated the time course of attention and the role of pain catastrophizing on attentional engagement toward pain-related information for adults with chronic pain conditions.
Highlights
Meta-analytic studies show the evidence for pain attentional bias among chronic pain individuals [1, 2]; this evidence is based on studies that measure indirect and covert attention such as the dot-probe task or cueing task [3]
Priebe et al [5] examined the time course of gaze behaviours toward pain faces using the eye tracker. ey found healthy adults initially preferred pain faces but this attentional preference declined over the course of time. e authors argued that this decline in attentional preference could be interpreted as either a shift to attentional avoidance from pain faces or the loss of relevance for pain faces over time. ey speculated that an attentional pattern to pain stimuli might have been shown more clearly if stimuli were presented longer than 2,000 ms
E present study proposed that (1) attentional engagement toward pain-related information would initially increase and be maintained throughout the course of attention and (2) attentional engagement toward pain-related information would be influenced by pain catastrophizing levels but the same pattern would not occur for anger-related information
Summary
Meta-analytic studies show the evidence for pain attentional bias among chronic pain individuals [1, 2]; this evidence is based on studies that measure indirect and covert attention such as the dot-probe task or cueing task [3]. Eye tracking methodology is a continuous measure that allows researchers to observe attentional patterns in different phases of attention [4] In spite of this improvement in eye tracking, only a few studies have examined the time course of the attentional process to pain stimuli. Only a few studies (e.g., [9]) investigated the role of pain catastrophizing on the attentional engagement of adults with chronic pain toward pain-related information by using the eye tracker. E present study proposed that (1) attentional engagement toward pain-related information would initially increase and be maintained throughout the course of attention and (2) attentional engagement toward pain-related information would be influenced by pain catastrophizing levels but the same pattern would not occur for anger-related information
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