Pain can be conditioned to voluntary movements through associative learning: An experimental study in healthy participants

Experimental data suggest that associative learning can influence defensive avoidance behavior and pain perception in humans. However, whether voluntary movements can become conditioned stimuli and influence pain responses has yet to be evaluated. Forty healthy volunteers participated in this study. Electrocutaneous stimuli applied to the shoulder at pain threshold level (UStest) and at pain tolerance level (US) were determined prior to a movement-conditioning paradigm. First, reaching movements to visual cues shown on one side of a computer screen were associated with the US (CS+ movements) on 80% of trials, whereas reaching movements to visual stimuli shown on the other side were never associated with the nociceptive-US (CS- movements). Next, participants underwent a test phase in which movements to visual cues on both sides were paired with the UStest on 50% of trials. During the test phase, participants were asked to evaluate if the movement was painful (yes/no) and to rate pain intensity after each trial. Movement onset and duration as well as skin conductance responses (SCR) were collected. The UStest stimuli were more likely to be perceived as painful and were also rated as more painful during CS+ movements. Movement onset latency and SCRs were significantly higher in anticipation of the CS+ movement as compared to the CS- movement. These findings suggest that pain can be conditioned to voluntary movements.

Publication year:2020

BOF-keylabel:yes

IOF-keylabel:yes

BOF-publication weight:10

CSS-citation score:1

Authors:International

Authors from:Higher Education

Accessibility:Open