0000000000347109
AUTHOR
Rea Rodriguez-raecke
Within-session sensitization and between-session habituation: A robust physiological response to repetitive painful heat stimulation
Habituation and sensitization are important behavioural responses to repeated exposure of painful stimuli. Whereas within-session response dynamics to nociceptive stimuli is well characterized, little is known about long-term behaviour due to repetitive nociceptive stimulation. We used a standardized longitudinal heat pain paradigm in 66 healthy participants, 21 patients with chronic low back pain and 22 patients with depression who received daily sessions of 60 suprathreshold heat stimuli (48 °C each) for eight consecutive days. All three groups showed the same response: Repeated painful stimulation over several days resulted in substantially decreased pain ratings to identical painful sti…
Expectations modulate long-term heat pain habituation.
Habituation to pain was shown to be a complex mechanism involving the pain encoding regions and the antinociceptive system in the brain. Pain perception can be modulated by cognitive factors; however it is unclear whether cognitive factors also influence habituation to pain. We used an established experimental design with repetitive moderate painful heat stimulation over eight consecutive days. Thirty-seven healthy subjects were recruited and assigned to four different groups: The first group (n=10) was instructed that pain perception over time will habituate; the second group (n=9) that pain will increase; the third group (n=8) was instructed that pain will remain stable over the 8 days of…