Loving-kindness language exposure leads to changes in sensitivity to imagined pain

To better understand the cultivation of positive intra- and interpersonal emotions, we examined an argument that some effects of contemplative training result from language processing. We presented participants with loving-kindness language used in kindness-meditation training studies and asked them to rate imagined pain. If loving-kindness language processing is responsible for some effects recently reported we expected this language could affect intra- and interpersonal sensitivity. Loving-kindness-language participants rated imagined other-pain significantly higher and imagined self-pain significantly lower than closely matched control participants. As a result of this interaction, the loving-kindness-language group showed no significant difference between self-pain and other-pain, whereas controls rated self-pain significantly higher than other-pain. These results suggest that exposure to loving-kindness-language in Loving-Kindness Meditation leads to changes in sensitivity to own and vicarious distress without explicit training. These findings underscore that meditation-like effects may be easily induced. Further research is needed to determine duration and degree of effect.     

Chronic Pain and Neuropsychological Functioning

This review article examines the effect of chronic pain on neuropsychological functioning. Primary attention is given to studies that include patient groups without a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) or neurologic disorders. Numerous studies were identified that demonstrate neuropsychological impairment in patients with chronic pain, particularly on measures assessing attentional capacity, processing speed, and psychomotor speed. Despite suggestive findings, further studies are needed to clarify the variables that mediate the impact of pain on neuropsychological functioning and the unique role of various symptoms often associated with chronic pain.     

Reviews

Books Reviewed: Is God a Virus? Genes, Culture and Religion byJohn Bowker Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues byIan Barbour The Origins of Virtue by Matt Ridley Nature's Grace: Essays on H. N. Wieman's Finite Theism by Marvin C. Shaw The Divine Constitution by Jeh-Tween Gong     

A passion of the soul: an introduction to pain for consciousness researchers

Pain is an important focus for consciousness research because it is an avenue for exploring somatic awareness, emotion, and the genesis of subjectivity. In principle, pain is awareness of tissue trauma, but pain can occur in the absence of identifiable injury, and sometimes substantive tissue injury produces no pain. The purpose of this paper is to help bridge pain research and consciousness studies. It reviews the basic sensory neurophysiology associated with tissue injury, including transduction, transmission, modulation, and central representation. In addition, it highlights the central mechanisms for the emotional aspects of pain, demonstrating the physiological link between tissue trauma and mechanisms of emotional arousal. Finally, we discuss several current issues in the field of pain research that bear on central issues in consciousness studies, such as sickness and sense of self.     

The Face of Truth

I attempt to explain Plato's choice of dialogue through an analysis of what he regarded as the conditions of knowledge acquisition. I see the main contribution of the paper in exposing the way in which time and pain are, for Plato, conditions of knowledge acquisition. Plato endorsed the "learning through suffering," or pathei mathos , convention, central to Greek drama, and did so not through theory but through the praxis some of the dialogues employ. This addition of experiential components to the more cognitively oriented definitions of knowledge that Socrates uses complicates what these works may say about human knowledge. I analyze these tensions and the bearing they may have on the question of Plato's choice of dialogue, that is, on his rhetoric in practice. The requirements for actual persuasion, as Plato specifies them in the Seventh Letter, , are only partially met by the fictional scenes of argumentation and knowledge conveying that Plato presents. However, such scenes permit transcending some of the limitations of written, systematic, nonpersonal discourse. The presentation of such interactions to a real reader through dialogue turns into a mode of writing that is closer to meeting the demands of actual communication of knowledge – at least knowledge regarding what Plato envisaged as being the highest sort of epistemic communication     

Predictors of Psychosocial and Cognitive Adaptation in Children with Sickle Cell Syndromes

Examined the role of socioecological factors (family functioning and socioeconomic variables) in predicting behavioral and cognitive adaptation in children with sickle cell syndromes (SCD). Participants included 74 African American children and adolescents with SCD and their primary caretakers. Outcomes included internalizing and externalizing behavior symptoms, as rated by caretakers, as well as intellectual abilities and academic achievement, as assessed by individually administered standardized instruments. Family functioning consisted of both caretaker adjustment and family environment (i.e., family adaptability and cohesion). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that caretaker psychological adjustment predicted externalizing behaviors, while family environment (i.e., adaptability and cohesion) predicted neither behavioral nor cognitive functioning. Socioeconomic variables alone predicted intellectual abilities and academic achievement and also contributed to the prediction of child behavioral adaptation. Results are discussed in terms of relevant sociocultural issues and implications for family-level prevention and intervention.     

Children's Coping with Recurrent Headache

We investigated the relationships among perceptions of control over pain, gender, and coping responses in 57 school-aged children receiving services at a specialized pediatric headache clinic. Perceptions of control and gender interacted to predict frequency of active and negative coping responses. A wide range of coping strategies was reported, but only minimal gender or perceived control differences were found in the frequency and helpfulness of individual coping strategies. Results are discussed within the context of recent stress and coping models within the pediatric chronic illness literature.     

Physostigmine''s Impact on Brief Shock-Induced Hypoalgesia Parallels Its Effect on Memory

Past research indicates that the anticholinergic drug scopolamine disrupts memory and environmentally induced hypoalgesia in rats. The present study examined the impact of the centrally active cholinesterase inhibitor physostigmine, which enhances memory and central cholinergic activity, on brief shock-induced hypoalgesia on the tail-flick test using Sprague–Dawley rats. It is reported that physostigmine (0.1 mg/kg) potentiates the magnitude of this hypoalgesia. Contrary to past research, our results showed that omission of baseline testing did not eliminate hypoalgesia or its potentiation by physostigmine. Similar to its effects on memory, physostigmine (0.04, 0.1, and 0.25 mg/kg) has a nonmonotonic impact on brief shock-induced hypoalgesia; low doses potentiated hypoalgesia (0.1 mg/kg), whereas a high dose (0.25 mg/kg) disrupted it. These results provide further evidence that the cholinergic system indirectly affects pain reactivity by modulating the memory of the aversive event.     

Reliability and standardization in the assessment of self-reported headache pain

The efficacy of a treatment intervention for head pain is typically evaluated by self-reported data. Self-monitoring schedules used to collect these data vary extensively across studies. The present article reviews conceptual and methodological problems with these self-report inventories. In addition, the most promising procedure was implemented in a study designed to measure the reliability of self-reported headache pain levels. One-hundred twenty-four college students self-monitored headache pain over an 8-week period. Three objective procedures were used to detect inaccurate recording. Subjects were also asked, in a post-experimental questionnaire, to subjectively rate the degree to which they complied with the experimenters' instructions regarding the self-monitoring procedures. Forty percent of the subjects were found to be noncompliant based on the detection techniques. However, responses to the postexperimental questionnaire indicated this to be a conservative estimation of noncompliance. There was no consistent difference between the postexperimental questionnaire for the subjects detected and those not detected. Results are discussed with relation to the need for researchers to adopt a standard methodology for (1) measuring self-reported headache pain and (2) reporting reliability data.Portions of these data were presented at the meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Chicago, November 1978.     

The development of the multidimensional locus of pain control questionnaire (MLPC): Factor structure,reliability, and validity

This study was conducted to develop a comprehensive Multidimensional Locus of Pain Control questionnaire (MLPC) and to examine how locus of pain control is related to pain appraisals, pain coping strategies, and adjustment to chronic pain. Subjects were 170 chronic headache patients. By means of factor analysis, four subscales were derived: an Internal, a Chance, a Physician, and a Medication locus of pain control orientation scale. The reliability and validity of the subscales appeared to be satisfactory. The results of the present study indicate that the locus of pain control orientation is significantly related to pain appraisals such as perceived pain control and catastrophizing and, to a lesser degree, to coping strategies as measured by the Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ). However, almost no relationship was observed between locus of pain control and adjustment to pain. Further research with the MLPC in different chronic pain populations is warranted in order to investigate whether the results found in this study can be generalized to chronic pain patients in general.