Child attention to pain and pain tolerance are dependent upon anxiety and attention control: An eye‐tracking study

Abstract

This study uses eye tracking to study attention to pain cues in children. Attention control is an important moderator of anxiety on attention bias to pain and tolerance of cold pressor pain in youth.

Virtual Reality Analgesia With Interactive Eye Tracking During Brief Thermal Pain Stimuli: A Randomized Controlled Trial (Crossover Design)

“…On the other hand, the lack of sound effects in the current study may have underestimated the benefits of eye movement interactivity, because there would be more sound effects in the interactive VR condition, which could make interactive VR more distracting and make the advantage of interactive VR over passive VR even more pronounced. Another limitation is that this study did not investigate/measure participants' attention level (e.g., Heathcote et al, 2017). In the current study, eye tracking technology was simply used as a naturalistic human computer interface.…”

“…Psychological factors such as fear, anxiety and depression can increase or amplify how much pain patients subjectively experience during painful medical procedures (Hemington et al, 2017), making pain management even more challenging. What people are thinking about, and where patients direct their attention during medical procedures (Heathcote et al, 2017), expectations of pain, and memories of previous painful procedures can increase pain intensity (Melzack and Wall, 1965;Noel et al, 2012Noel et al, , 2015aFields, 2018;Fischer et al, 2018).…”

Rumination induces a pattern of attention characterized by increased vigilance followed by avoidance of affective pain words

“…It is possible that the rumination condition simply increased the threat of the task and hence, it is threat that accounts for the effects seen here (Todd et al, 2015). Nonetheless, the view that avoidance may be the putative attentional response to pain-related material has been supported by a number of recent eye tracking studies (Yang et al, 2012(Yang et al, , 2013Vervoort et al, 2013a;Heathcote et al, 2017;Sharpe et al, 2017;Todd et al, 2016).…”

“…In contrast, it was biases away from affective pain words, that predicted chronicity both 3 and 6 months later (Sharpe et al, 2014).The threat interpretation model makes the prediction that under high threat the exact pattern of vigilance-avoidance found here will emerge. Nonetheless, the view that avoidance may be the putative attentional response to pain-related material has been supported by a number of recent eye tracking studies (Yang et al, 2012(Yang et al, , 2013Vervoort et al, 2013a;Heathcote et al, 2017;Sharpe et al, 2017;Todd et al, 2016). Nonetheless, the view that avoidance may be the putative attentional response to pain-related material has been supported by a number of recent eye tracking studies (Yang et al, 2012(Yang et al, , 2013Vervoort et al, 2013a;Heathcote et al, 2017;Sharpe et al, 2017;Todd et al, 2016).…”

The experiences of a nonclinical set of adolescents and young adults living with persistent pain: a qualitative metasynthesis

“…This definition highlights that pain is a subjective concept, as well as the importance of accepting the person's perception and experience of pain. Pain is a complex phenomenon and can be a symptom of underlying problems reflecting several psychological, social, and physical factors [4,15,16]. Adolescence is a vulnerable period in life between childhood and adulthood, and can be challenging with respect to developmental tasks, independence from caregivers, social development, and peer relationships [17,18].…”