@article{PollatosHerbertFuestoesetal.2012,
  author    = {Pollatos, Olga and Herbert, Beate M. and Fuestoes, Juergen and Weimer, Katja and Enck, Paul and Zipfel, Stephan},
  title     = {Food deprivation sensitizes pain perception},
  series = {International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology},
  volume    = {26},
  journal   = {International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {Hogrefe},
  address   = {G{\"o}ttingen},
  issn      = {0269-8803},
  doi       = {10.1027/0269-8803/a000062},
  pages     = {1 -- 9},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {While food deprivation has known effects on sympathovagal balance, little is known about hunger's influence on the perception of pain. Since autonomic activities influence many cognitive and emotional processes, this suggests that food deprivation should interact with the perception of pain. This study analyzed the possible effects of short-term food deprivation on pain sensitivity in healthy female participants. This study was comprised of 32 healthy female participants who underwent a 48-hr inpatient hospital investigation. Prior to testing, heart rate and heart rate variability were assessed. After a standardized breakfast, day 1 measurements were taken. Food intake was then not allowed again until the following evening for 22 participants (experimental group), while 12 participants were served standard meals (control group). Pain threshold and tolerance were assessed at 10:00 a. m. on both days using a pressure algometer. Additionally pain experience was examined. Food deprivation significantly reduced pain thresholds and tolerance scores in the experimental group. Additionally, the sympathovagal balance changed, characterized by a decrease in parasympathetic activation. Higher vagal withdrawal after food deprivation was associated with higher pain sensitivity in the experimental group. Furthermore, perceived unpleasantness and pain intensity increased for threshold and tolerance stimuli in the experimental group. We conclude that short-term food deprivation sensitized pain perception in healthy females. An imbalance in sympathovagal activation evoked by food deprivation accounted for this effect. Our results might be a pathogenic mechanism for the development of emotional difficulties associated with disturbed eating behavior.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{PollatosFuestoesCritchley2012,
  author    = {Pollatos, Olga and Fuestoes, Juergen and Critchley, Hugo D.},
  title     = {On the generalised embodiment of pain: how interoceptive sensitivity modulates cutaneous pain perception},
  series = {Pain : journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain},
  volume    = {153},
  journal   = {Pain : journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain},
  number    = {8},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Amsterdam},
  issn      = {0304-3959},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.pain.2012.04.030},
  pages     = {1680 -- 1686},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {Individual differences in interoceptive sensitivity are associated with differences in reported intensity of emotional experience, vulnerability to anxiety and mood disorder and capacity for emotional self-regulation. Enhanced sensitivity to autonomic state is often accompanied by increased autonomic reactivity. Here we tested the hypothesis that healthy people classified as more interoceptively sensitive, by their performance of a heartbeat monitoring task, will demonstrate enhanced perception of pain. We further explored whether this effect is associated with a greater physiological reactivity to the pain stimuli. Using an algometer, cutaneous pressure pain was applied to the thenar eminence in 60 healthy participants. Heart rate variability and respiratory activity were recorded concurrently. We observed significant relationships between heightened interoceptive sensitivity and both enhanced sensitivity and decreased tolerance to pain. These effects were accompanied by a more pronounced parasympathetic decrease and a change in sympathovagal balance during pain assessment in the high, compared to the low, interoceptively sensitive group. Our study provides novel evidence that interoceptive sensitivity is associated with the experience and tolerability of pain in conjunction with reactive changes in autonomic balance.},
  language  = {en}
}