Jumping to conclusions in persistent pain using a somatosensory modification of the beads task

Abstract

BackgroundThere is theoretical and empirical evidence that persistent pain occurs because of a distortion in top-down perceptual processes. ‘Jumping to conclusions’ (JTC) tasks, such as the beads task, purportedly capture these processes and have yet to be studied in people with chronic pain. However, the beads task uses visual stimuli, whereas tasks involving processing in the somatosensory domain seem at least more face valid in this population. This study uses a novel somatosensory adaptation of the beads task to explore whether a JTC reasoning style is more common in people with persistent pain compared controls. Methods30 persistent pain patients and 30 age-, gender- and education-matched controls completed the visual beads JTC task and a novel somatosensory version of the JTC task that used tactile stimuli (vibrations to the fingertip). FindingsPatients with persistent pain showed a ‘jumping to conclusions’ reasoning style on both tasks compared to the control group and there was no significant difference in the effect sizes on the two tasks. InterpretationThis preliminarily study demonstrated that individuals with persistent pain show a JTC reasoning style to both visual and somatosensory stimuli. Future research should focus on establishing how or whether this bias directly influences the experience of persistent pain.