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Pain relativity in motor control

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Kurniawan, I. T., Seymour, B., Vlaev, I., Trommershauser, J., Dolan, R. J. and Chater, Nick. (2010) Pain relativity in motor control. Psychological Science, Vol.21 (No.6). pp. 840-847. ISSN 0956-7976

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Abstract

Motivational theories of pain highlight its role in people’s choices of actions that avoid bodily damage. By contrast, little is known regarding how pain influences action implementation. To explore this less-understood area, we conducted a study in which participants had to rapidly point to a target area to win money while avoiding an overlapping penalty area that would cause pain in their contralateral hand. We found that pain intensity and target-penalty proximity repelled participants’ movement away from pain and that motor execution was influenced not by absolute pain magnitudes but by relative pain differences. Our results indicate that the magnitude and probability of pain have a precise role in guiding motor control and that representations of pain that guide action are, at least in part, relative rather than absolute. Additionally, our study shows that the implicit monetary valuation of pain, like many explicit valuations (e.g., patients’ use of rating scales in medical contexts), is unstable, a finding that has implications for pain treatment in clinical contexts.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Behavioural Science
Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Journal or Publication Title: Psychological Science
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
ISSN: 0956-7976
Date: June 2010
Volume: Vol.21
Number: No.6
Number of Pages: 8
Page Range: pp. 840-847
Identification Number: 10.1177/0956797610370160
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
URI: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/44435

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