Publicação
The neuromodulation of emotional pain perception: a psychophysiology study
| Resumo: | Recent studies indicate that perceiving other’s pain generates physiological responses similar to their own sense of pain, with similar results for Physical and Social Pain. However, even with the increased use of neuromodulation techniques, such as Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), little is known about the influence of this technique on others pain, especially psychophysiological processing. This study sought to understand the role of the left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) on psychophysiological processing of emotional pictures, by recording electromyographic of Startle response in healthy participants. The results indicate that anodal tDCS (M = 50.168μV, SD = .071), provides a significant reduction of EMG activation only when viewing highly arousing physical pain pictures, when compared to sham condition (M = 50.457μV, SD = .071). However, the well-known Startle patterns of activity remained intact between the different categories. This findings are in line with the literature, showing a modulation of other’s pain perception, depending on a possible increase on pain threshold caused by left DLPFC tDCS. However, further studies are needed to better understand the effects of tDCS in processing others' suffering, as well as the relationship between the psychophysiological processing of physical and social pain described above. |
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| Autores principais: | Marques, Lucas Murrins |
| Assunto: | Startle reflex DLPFC tDCS Pain Reflexo startle CPFDL ETCC Dor |
| Ano: | 2013 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso restrito |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade do Minho |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho |
| Resumo: | Recent studies indicate that perceiving other’s pain generates physiological responses similar to their own sense of pain, with similar results for Physical and Social Pain. However, even with the increased use of neuromodulation techniques, such as Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), little is known about the influence of this technique on others pain, especially psychophysiological processing. This study sought to understand the role of the left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) on psychophysiological processing of emotional pictures, by recording electromyographic of Startle response in healthy participants. The results indicate that anodal tDCS (M = 50.168μV, SD = .071), provides a significant reduction of EMG activation only when viewing highly arousing physical pain pictures, when compared to sham condition (M = 50.457μV, SD = .071). However, the well-known Startle patterns of activity remained intact between the different categories. This findings are in line with the literature, showing a modulation of other’s pain perception, depending on a possible increase on pain threshold caused by left DLPFC tDCS. However, further studies are needed to better understand the effects of tDCS in processing others' suffering, as well as the relationship between the psychophysiological processing of physical and social pain described above. |
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