TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Fuestoes, Juergen
A1  - Critchley, Hugo D.
T1  - On the generalised embodiment of pain: how interoceptive sensitivity modulates cutaneous pain perception
JF  - Pain : journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain
N2  - 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.
KW  - Cutaneous pain perception
KW  - Embodiment
KW  - Insula
KW  - Interoception
KW  - Interoceptive sensitivity
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2012.04.030
SN  - 0304-3959
VL  - 153
IS  - 8
SP  - 1680
EP  - 1686
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Herbert, Beate M.
A1  - Fuestoes, Juergen
A1  - Weimer, Katja
A1  - Enck, Paul
A1  - Zipfel, Stephan
T1  - Food deprivation sensitizes pain perception
JF  - International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology
N2  - 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.
KW  - short-term food deprivation
KW  - pain threshold
KW  - pain tolerance
KW  - sympathovagal balance
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1027/0269-8803/a000062
SN  - 0269-8803
VL  - 26
IS  - 1
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Hogrefe
CY  - Göttingen
ER  -