Dataset Information

Cognitive performance in pain is predicted by effort, not goal desire.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pain's disruptive effects on cognition are well documented. The seminal goal-pursuit account of pain suggests that cognitive disruption is less likely if participants are motivated to attended to a focal goal and not a pain goal.

Objectives

Existing theory is unclear about the conceptualisation and operationalisation of 'focal goal'. This study aims to clarify how goals should be conceptualised and further seeks to test the theory of the goal-pursuit account.

Methods

In a pre-registered laboratory experiment, 56 participants completed an arithmetic task in high-reward/low-reward and pain/control conditions. Pain was induced via cold-water immersion.

Results

High levels of reported effort exertion predicted cognitive-task performance, whereas desire for rewards did not. Post-hoc analyses further suggest that additional effort in the pain condition compensated for pain's disruptive effects, but when this extra effort was not exerted, performance deficits were observed in pain, compared to control, conditions.

Conclusion

Results suggest that 'motivation', or commitment to a focal goal, is best understood as effort exertion and not as a positive desire to achieve a goal. These results solidify existing theory and aid researchers in operationalising these constructs.

SUBMITTER: Pickering J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8568120 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Cognitive performance in pain is predicted by effort, not goal desire.

Pickering Jayne J Attridge Nina N Inglis Matthew M

PloS one 20211104 11

<h4>Background</h4>Pain's disruptive effects on cognition are well documented. The seminal goal-pursuit account of pain suggests that cognitive disruption is less likely if participants are motivated to attended to a focal goal and not a pain goal.<h4>Objectives</h4>Existing theory is unclear about the conceptualisation and operationalisation of 'focal goal'. This study aims to clarify how goals should be conceptualised and further seeks to test the theory of the goal-pursuit account.<h4>Methods ...[more]

PMID: 34735492

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Project description:Distracted eating can lead to increased food intake, but it is unclear how. We aimed to assess how distraction affects motivated, goal-directed responses for food reward after satiation. Thirty-eight healthy normal-weight participants (28F; 10M) performed a visual detection task varying in attentional load (high vs. low distraction) during fMRI. Simultaneously, they exerted effort for sweet and savory food rewards by repeated button presses. Two fMRI runs were separated by sensory-specific satiation (outcome devaluation) of one of the (sweet or savory) reward outcomes, to assess outcome-sensitive, goal-directed, responses (valued vs. devalued reward, post vs. pre satiation). We could not verify our primary hypothesis that more distraction leads to less activation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) during goal-directed effort. Behaviorally, distraction also did not affect effort for food reward following satiation across subjects. For our secondary hypothesis, we assessed whether distraction affected other fronto-striatal regions during goal-directed effort. We did not obtain such effects at our whole-brain corrected threshold, but at an exploratory uncorrected threshold (p < 0.001), distraction decreased goal-directed responses (devalued vs. valued) in the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG). We continued with this rIFG region for the next secondary hypothesis; specifically, that distraction would reduce functional connectivity with the fronto-striatal regions found in the previous analyses. Indeed, distraction decreased functional connectivity between the rIFG and left putamen for valued versus devalued food rewards (pFWE(cluster) < 0.05). In an exploratory brain-behavior analysis, we showed that distraction-sensitive rIFG-responses correlated negatively (r = - 0.40; p = 0.014) with the effect of distraction on effort. Specifically, decreased distraction-related rIFG-responses were associated with increased effort for food reward after satiation. We discuss the absence of distraction effects on goal-directed responses in vmPFC and in behavior across participants. Moreover, based on our significant functional connectivity and brain-behavior results, we suggest that distraction might attenuate the ability to inhibit responses for food reward after satiation by affecting the rIFG and its connection to the putamen.

Dataset Information

Cognitive performance in pain is predicted by effort, not goal desire.

Background

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Cognitive performance in pain is predicted by effort, not goal desire.

Similar Datasets

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