Effects Of Visually-Cued Somatosensory Stimulation On Visual Attention Biases Within Pain-Free And Chronic Pain Samples

Attention biases towards pain-related stimuli in laboratory studies based on reaction time(RT)cannot directly illuminate attention deployment during stimulus presentations.Eye-tracking technology is a comparatively direct,continuous measure of visual-spatial attention during stimulus presentations.Eye movement(EM)studies on pain-related attention biases have typically involved pain words or images that have no salience for direct experiences of pain.Does visual attention processing differ when visual pain cues signal potentially painful somatosensory information?To address this issue,Study 1 examined differences in orienting and maintenance of eye-movements of pain-free participants(47 women,35 men)during a visual dot probe task featuring painful versus non-painful images(Task 1)as well as visually-cued somatosensory stimulation task in which these image categories respectively,signaled possibly painful sensory stimulation versus non-painful stimulation(Task 2).Across both tasks,the sample was more likely to orient towards,gaze longer at,and make more unique fixations upon pain images.Individual differences in fear of pain(FOP)levels were not related to attention biases.Supplementary analyses of task differences in EMs indicated the sample gazed longer and made more unique fixations during pain images that signaled potentially painful stimulation than “uncued” pain images.In Study 2,98 chronic pain patients(69 women and 29 men),reflecting higher and lower FOP subgroups underwent the same two tasks.Replicating Study 1,across tasks,the sample initially oriented towards,then gazed longer at,and made more unique fixations upon pain images.Once again,FOP levels were not related to attention biases,the state fear effect need to be explore,the chronic pain sample reported stronger state fear and gazed longer at pain images that signaled potentially painful stimulation(Task 2)than “uncued” pain images(Task 1).Together,results suggested visual attention biases towards painful depictions of physical injuries are similar within pain-free samples and those with ongoing chronic pain.Visual attention is more likely to be maintained on painful visual images that directly signal possibly painful somatosensory stimulation compared to painful images that have no implications for direct experiences of pain.As such,attentional vigilance is more probable during exposure to threatening visual cues that have direct salience for painful somatosensory experiences.