Transforming Pain With Prosocial Meaning: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Psychosomatic Medicine
Marina López-SolàTor D Wager

Abstract

Contextual factors can transform how we experience pain, particularly if pain is associated with other positive outcomes. Here, we test a novel meaning-based intervention. Participants were given the opportunity to choose to receive pain on behalf of their romantic partners, situating pain experience in a positive, prosocial meaning context. We predicted that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a key structure for pain regulation and generation of affective meaning, would mediate the transformation of pain experience by this prosocial interpersonal context. We studied fMRI activity and behavioral responses in 29 heterosexual female participants during (1) a baseline pain challenge and (2) a task in which participants decided to accept a self-selected number of additional pain trials to reduce pain in their male romantic partners ("accept-partner-pain" condition). Enduring extra pain for the benefit of the romantic partner reduced pain-related unpleasantness (t = -2.54, p = .016) but not intensity, and increased positive thoughts (t = 3.60, p = .001) and pleasant feelings (t = 5.39, p < .0005). Greater willingness to accept the pain of one's partner predicted greater unpleasantness reductions (t = 3.94, p = .001) and inc...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 9, 2020·Scientific Reports·Valentina NicolardiSalvatore Maria Aglioti
Sep 24, 2020·European Journal of Pain : EJP·Laura JonesRebecca Pillai Riddell
Jun 27, 2019·Pain·Marina López-SolàTor D Wager
Oct 4, 2019·Pain Reports·Maite M van der MiesenTor D Wager
Oct 18, 2019·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Inge TimmersLaura E Simons
Jan 1, 2020·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Yilu WangXiaofei Xie
Feb 7, 2020·Behavioral Sciences·Lorenza Lucchi Basili, Pier Luigi Sacco
Apr 2, 2021·Nature Reviews. Neuroscience·Leonie KobanTor D Wager
Sep 30, 2021·Journal of Oral Rehabilitation·Ziwei TangFan Jian

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