The disruptive nature of pain: An experimental investigation

Pain interrupts, distracts and takes effort to ignore. Focusing our research attention upon this central aspect of pain experience, an experimental paradigm is introduced to study the disruptive nature of pain. Healthy volunteers were exposed several times to an electrical pain stimulus and a control stimulus. Tone probes were presented immediately (100 ms) and later on (1500 ms) after pain/control onset, and after pain/control offset (1000 ms). Results clearly showed disruption during pain. This disruptive effect was most marked immediately after onset. No differential results between pain and control conditions were observed later on during the pain experience. These results are interpreted within current cognitive and psychophysiological theories of attention. Emphasis is placed upon the importance of the experimental investigation of the role of attention in pain processing.     

The consequences of pain: The social and physical pain overlap on psychological responses

Current theories suggest that social and physical pain overlap in their neurological and physiological outcomes. We investigated how social and physical pain overlap in their psychological responses by testing the hypothesis that both social and physical pain would thwart satisfaction on four human needs, worsen mood, and increase desire to aggress. In Experiment 1, recalling an experience of social or physical pain produced overlapping effects in the form of thwarted self‐esteem and control needs and increased negative affect and desire to aggress. In Experiment 2, we induced social (Cyberball ostracism) or physical pain (cold pressor) within the laboratory session, and found that both pain types produced feelings of being ignored and excluded, and thwarted belonging, self‐esteem, control, and meaningful existence. Our results provide further support to pain overlap theories and indicate that social and physical pain cause common psychological consequences, resulting in new ways to understand and manage pain. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neural circuitry underlying pain modulation: expectation,hypnosis, placebo

The ability to predict the likelihood of an aversive event is an important adaptive capacity. Certainty and uncertainty regarding pain cause different adaptive behavior, emotional states, attentional focus, and perceptual changes. Recent functional neuroimaging studies indicate that certain and uncertain expectation are mediated by different neural pathways-the former having been associated with activity in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and posterior cerebellum, the latter with activation changes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, mid-cingulate cortex and hippocampus. Expectation plays an important role not only in its modulation of acute and chronic pain, but also in other disorders which are characterized by certain expectation (specific phobias) or uncertain expectation (generalized anxiety disorder) of aversive events.     

An evolutionary analysis of psychological pain following human (Homo sapiens) rape: IV. The effect of the nature of the sexual assault

Mental pain is hypothesized to manifest an adaptation for analyzing and coping with social problems that would have reduced inclusive fitness in human (Homo sapiens) evolutionary history. We examined this hypothesis in the psychological pain of 790 rape victims. Reproductive-aged and postreproductive-aged victims were more likely than prereproductive-aged victims to have experienced vaginal intercourse and to have had sperm present in the reproductive tract. As predicted, vaginal intercourse constituted the most psychologically devastating form of sexual assault for reproductive-aged women. Nonreproductive-aged victims were not more traumatized by vaginal rapes. When rapes included ejaculation in the victim's reproductive tract, reproductive-aged victims may have been more traumatized. These results suggest that the psychology that regulates mental pain processes information about the nature of the sexual act in the event of a woman's rape.     

Empathy gaps for social pain: why people underestimate the pain of social suffering

In 5 studies, the authors examined the hypothesis that people have systematically distorted beliefs about the pain of social suffering. By integrating research on empathy gaps for physical pain (Loewenstein, 1996) with social pain theory (MacDonald & Leary, 2005), the authors generated the hypothesis that people generally underestimate the severity of social pain (ostracism, shame, etc.)--a biased judgment that is only corrected when people actively experience social pain for themselves. Using a social exclusion manipulation, Studies 1-4 found that nonexcluded participants consistently underestimated the severity of social pain compared with excluded participants, who had a heightened appreciation for social pain. This empathy gap for social pain occurred when participants evaluated both the pain of others (interpersonal empathy gap) as well as the pain participants themselves experienced in the past (intrapersonal empathy gap). The authors argue that beliefs about social pain are important because they govern how people react to socially distressing events. In Study 5, middle school teachers were asked to evaluate policies regarding emotional bullying at school. This revealed that actively experiencing social pain heightened the estimated pain of emotional bullying, which in turn led teachers to recommend both more comprehensive treatment for bullied students and greater punishment for students who bully.     

Intimate homicide: An analysis of violent social relationships

Homicide which occurs in intimate social relationships was studied using data from three Western Canadian cities. Variables which may be related to the relationship and homicide are also examined. Unstable relationships are clearly differentiated from other relationships and are more likely to result in homicide. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Thirteen days: Joseph Delboeuf versus Pierre Janet on the nature of hypnotic suggestion

The problem of post‐hypnotic suggestion was introduced in 1884. Give a hypnotic subject the post‐hypnotic command to return in 13 days. Awake, the subject remembers nothing yet nonetheless fulfills the command to return. How then does the subject count 13 days without knowing it? In 1886, Pierre Janet proposed the concept of dissociation as a solution, arguing that a second consciousness kept track of time outside of the subject's main consciousness. Joseph Delboeuf, in 1885, and Hippolyte Bernheim, in 1886, proposed an alternative solution, arguing that subjects occasionally drifted into a hypnotic state in which they were reminded of the suggestion. This article traces the development of these competing solutions and describes some of Delboeuf's final reflections on the problem of simulation and the nature of hypnosis. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.