Motor Responses to Noxious Stimuli Shape Pain Perception in Chronic Pain Patients. 2018

Henrik Heitmann, and Elisabeth S May, and Laura Tiemann, and Paul Schmidt, and Moritz M Nickel, and Son Ta Dinh, and Vanessa D Hohn, and Thomas R Tölle, and Markus Ploner
Department of Neurology, Technische Universität München, Munich 81675, Germany.

Pain serves vital protective functions, which crucially depend on appropriate motor responses to noxious stimuli. Such responses not only depend on but can themselves shape the perception of pain. In chronic pain, perception is often decoupled from noxious stimuli and motor responses are no longer protective, which suggests that the relationships between noxious stimuli, pain perception, and behavior might be changed. We here performed a simple experiment to quantitatively assess the relationships between noxious stimuli, perception and behavior in 22 chronic pain patients and 22 age-matched healthy human participants. Brief noxious and tactile stimuli were applied to the participants' hands and participants performed speeded motor responses and provided perceptual ratings of the stimuli. Multi-level moderated mediation analyses assessed the relationships between stimulus intensity, perceptual ratings and reaction times for both stimulus types. The results revealed a significantly stronger involvement of motor responses in the translation of noxious stimuli into perception than in the translation of tactile stimuli into perception. This significant influence of motor responses on pain perception was found for both chronic pain patients and healthy participants. Thus, stimulus-perception-behavior relationships appear to be at least partially preserved in chronic pain patients and motor-related as well as behavioral interventions might harness these functional relationships to modulate pain perception.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D008875 Middle Aged An adult aged 45 - 64 years. Middle Age
D009043 Motor Activity Body movements of a human or an animal as a behavioral phenomenon. Activities, Motor,Activity, Motor,Motor Activities
D010812 Physical Stimulation Act of eliciting a response from a person or organism through physical contact. Stimulation, Physical,Physical Stimulations,Stimulations, Physical
D011930 Reaction Time The time from the onset of a stimulus until a response is observed. Response Latency,Response Speed,Response Time,Latency, Response,Reaction Times,Response Latencies,Response Times,Speed, Response,Speeds, Response
D005260 Female Females
D006358 Hot Temperature Presence of warmth or heat or a temperature notably higher than an accustomed norm. Heat,Hot Temperatures,Temperature, Hot,Temperatures, Hot
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D000368 Aged A person 65 years of age or older. For a person older than 79 years, AGED, 80 AND OVER is available. Elderly

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