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Negative body image associated with changes in the visual body appearance increases pain perception.

ABSTRACT: Changing the visual body appearance by use of as virtual reality system, funny mirror, or binocular glasses has been reported to be helpful in rehabilitation of pain. However, there are interindividual differences in the analgesic effect of changing the visual body image. We hypothesized that a negative body image associated with changing the visual body appearance causes interindividual differences in the analgesic effect although the relationship between the visual body appearance and analgesic effect has not been clarified. We investigated whether a negative body image associated with changes in the visual body appearance increased pain. Twenty-five healthy individuals participated in this study. To evoke a negative body image, we applied the method of rubber hand illusion. We created an "injured rubber hand" to evoke unpleasantness associated with pain, a "hairy rubber hand" to evoke unpleasantness associated with embarrassment, and a "twisted rubber hand" to evoke unpleasantness associated with deviation from the concept of normality. We also created a "normal rubber hand" as a control. The pain threshold was measured while the participant observed the rubber hand using a device that measured pain caused by thermal stimuli. Body ownership experiences were elicited by observation of the injured rubber hand and hairy rubber hand as well as the normal rubber hand. Participants felt more unpleasantness by observing the injured rubber hand and hairy rubber hand than the normal rubber hand and twisted rubber hand (p<0.001). The pain threshold was lower under the injured rubber hand condition than with the other conditions (p<0.001). We conclude that a negative body appearance associated with pain can increase pain sensitivity.

SUBMITTER: Osumi M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4161431 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Aging affects pain experience and brain functioning. However, how aging leads to changes in pain perception and brain functional connectivity has not yet been completely understood. To investigate resting-state and pain perception changes in old and young participants, this study employed region of interest (ROI) to ROI resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) analysis of imaging data by using regions implicated in sensory and affective dimensions of pain, descending pain modulation, and the default-mode networks (DMNs). Thirty-seven older (66.86 ± 4.04 years; 16 males) and 38 younger healthy participants (20.74 ± 4.15 years; 19 males) underwent 10 min' eyes-closed resting-state scanning. We examined the relationship between rsFC parameters with pressure pain thresholds. Older participants showed higher pain thresholds than younger. Regarding rsFC, older adults displayed increased connectivity of pain-related sensory brain regions in comparison to younger participants: increased rsFC between bilateral primary somatosensory area (SI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and between SI(L) and secondary somatosensory area (SII)-(R) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). Moreover, decreased connectivity in the older compared to the younger group was found among descending pain modulatory regions: between the amygdala(R) and bilateral insula(R), thalamus(R), ACC, and amygdala(L); between the amygdala(L) and insula(R) and bilateral thalamus; between ACC and bilateral insula, and between periaqueductal gray (PAG) and bilateral thalamus. Regarding the DMN, the posterior parietal cortex and lateral parietal (LP; R) were more strongly connected in the older group than in the younger group. Correlational analyses also showed that SI(L)-SII(R) rsFC was positively associated with pressure pain thresholds in older participants. In conclusion, these findings suggest a compensatory mechanism for the sensory changes that typically accompanies aging. Furthermore, older participants showed reduced functional connectivity between key nodes of the descending pain inhibitory pathway.

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Negative body image associated with changes in the visual body appearance increases pain perception.

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