Biased Intensity Judgements of Visceral Sensations After Learning to Fear Visceral Stimuli: A Drift Diffusion Approach

JOURNAL OF PAIN

卷:18

Article

Zaman, Jonas¹  Madden, Victoria J.^4,5,6  Lyen, Julie²  Wiech, Katja^7,8  Weltens, Nathalie²  Ly, Huynh Giao²  Vlaeyen, Johan W. S.^1,9  Van Oudenhove, Lukas^2,3  Van Diest, Ilse¹ 

[1] Katholieke Univ Leuven, Hlth Psychol, Fac Psychol & Educ Sci, Leuven, Belgium

[2] Katholieke Univ Leuven, Lab Brain Gut Axis Studies LaBGAS, Translat Res Ctr Gastrointestinal Disorders TARGI, Dept Clin & Expt Med, Leuven, Belgium

[3] Katholieke Univ Leuven, Consultat Liaison Psychiat, Univ Psychiat Ctr, Leuven, Belgium

[4] Univ South Australia, Sansom Inst Hlth Res, Adelaide, SA, Australia

[5] Univ Cape Town, Dept Psychiat & Mental Hlth, Rondebosch, South Africa

[6] Univ Cape Town, Dept Anaesthesia & Perioperat Med, Rondebosch, South Africa

[7] Univ Oxford, John Radcliffe Hosp, Ctr Funct Magnet Resonance Imaging Brain FMRIB, Oxford, England

[8] Univ Oxford, John Radcliffe Hosp, Nuffield Div Anaesthet, Nuffield Dept Clin Neurosci, Oxford, England

[9] Maastricht Univ, Dept Clin Psychol Sci, Maastricht, Netherlands

关键词: Interoceptive fear learning;    perceptual decision-making;    drift diffusion;    visceral intensity perception;    differential conditioning;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jpain.2017.04.011

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

A growing body of research has identified fear of visceral sensations as a potential mechanism in the development and maintenance of visceral pain disorders. However, the extent to which such learned fear affects visceroception remains unclear. To address this question, we used a differential fear conditioning paradigm with nonpainful esophageal balloon distensions of 2 different intensities as conditioning stimuli (CSs). The experiment comprised of preacquisition, acquisition, and postacquisition phases during which participants categorized the CSs with respect to their intensity. The CS+ was always followed by a painful electrical stimulus (unconditioned stimulus) during the acquisition phase and in 60% of the trials during postacquisition. The second stimulus (CS) was never associated with pain. Analyses of galvanic skin and startle eyeblink responses as physiological markers of successful conditioning showed increased fear responses to the CS+ compared with the CS, but only in the group with the low-intensity stimulus as CS+. Computational modeling of response times and response accuracies revealed that differential fear learning affected perceptual decision-making about the intensities of visceral sensations such that sensations were more likely to be categorized as more intense. These results suggest that associative learning might indeed contribute to visceral hypersensitivity in functional gastrointestinal disorders. Perspective: This study shows that associative fear learning biases intensity judgements of visceral sensations toward perceiving such sensations as more intense. Learning-induced alterations in visceroception might therefore contribute to the development or maintenance of visceral pain. (C) 2017 by the American Pain Society

【 授权许可】

Free