Event-related potential correlates of interference between cognitive performance and tonic experimental pain.

In this study, we examined cognitive function during experimental pain induced by an ischemic upper-arm tourniquet. During pain and control conditions, individuals performed a memory search task and an oddball task. Reaction time, errors, and event-related potentials in response to task stimuli were evaluated. Pain reduced accuracy and changed the response-type dependency of errors and the reaction time within the memory search task: false rejections but not false acceptances increased, and rejections were faster than acceptances during pain, whereas the opposite occurred during control conditions. The memory probes elicited an N275 that increased and a P300 that decreased in amplitude during pain. Pain also reduced amplitudes of P200 and P300 from the oddball task. N275 enhancement was greater in nonaffected than affected individuals, suggesting its association with focused attention that inhibited disruption by pain. P300 attenuation is interpreted as an indication that cognitive involvement in pain diminishes the attention resources allocated to a concurrent cognitive task.

[1]  David L. Strayer,et al.  Event related potentials and EEG components in a semantic memory search task. , 1992, Psychophysiology.

[2]  Saul Sternberg,et al.  The discovery of processing stages: Extensions of Donders' method , 1969 .

[3]  R. Treede,et al.  Laser-evoked potentials: exogenous and endogenous components. , 1996, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[4]  E. Chudler,et al.  The assessment of pain by cerebral evoked potentials , 1983, Pain.

[5]  C. Eccleston.  The attentional control of pain: methodological and theoretical concerns , 1995, Pain.

[6]  Arthur F. Kramer,et al.  Assessing the development of automatic processing: An application of dual-task and event-related brain potential methodologies , 1988, Biological Psychology.

[7]  R. Hockey,et al.  Changes in information-selection patterns in multisource monitoring as a function of induced arousal shifts. , 1973, Journal of experimental psychology.

[8]  G Kobal,et al.  Cerebral chemosensory evoked potentials elicited by chemical stimulation of the human olfactory and respiratory nasal mucosa. , 1988, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[9]  J. Rosenfeld,et al.  Ongoing ischemic pain as a workload indexed by P3 amplitude and latency in real-versus feigned-pain conditions. , 1993, Psychophysiology.

[10]  Risto N t nen.  Processing negativity: An evoked-potential reflection. , 1982 .

[11]  G Mulder,et al.  Event-related potentials during memory search and selective attention to letter size and conjunctions of letter size and color. , 1989, Psychophysiology.

[12]  Andrew C. N. Chen,et al.  Human pain responsivity in a tonic pain model: Psychological determinants , 1989, Pain.

[13]  L D Blumhardt,et al.  Event-related potential (ERP) correlates of performance of intelligence tests. , 1992, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[14]  G. Crombez,et al.  Sensory and temporal information about impending pain: the influence of predictability on pain. , 1994, Behaviour research and therapy.

[15]  A. Chen,et al.  Brain electrical source analysis of laser evoked potentials in response to painful trigeminal nerve stimulation. , 1995, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[16]  M. Kutas,et al.  Electrophysiology of cognitive processing. , 1983, Annual review of psychology.

[17]  G. Crombez,et al.  The disruptive nature of pain: an experimental investigation. , 1996, Behaviour research and therapy.

[18]  J. Easterbrook.  The effect of emotion on cue utilization and the organization of behavior. , 1959, Psychological review.

[19]  C. Eccleston,et al.  Chronic pain and distraction: an experimental investigation into the role of sustained and shifting attention in the processing of chronic persistent pain. , 1995, Behaviour research and therapy.

[20]  E. Donchin,et al.  Performance of concurrent tasks: a psychophysiological analysis of the reciprocity of information-processing resources. , 1983, Science.

[21]  R. Kakigi,et al.  Pain-related magnetic fields following painful CO2 laser stimulation in man , 1995, Neuroscience Letters.

[22]  S. Hillyard,et al.  Endogenous brain potentials associated with selective auditory attention. , 1980, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[23]  J. Rosenfeld,et al.  Ongoing pain as a mental workload indexed by P300 depression: discrimination of real and feigned pain conditions. , 1991, Psychophysiology.

[24]  C D Wickens,et al.  The Event-Related Brain Potential as an Index of Display-Monitoring Workload , 1980, Human factors.

[25]  R. Treede,et al.  Pain related cerebral potentials: late and ultralate components. , 1987, The International journal of neuroscience.