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Cerebral and Spinal Modulation of Pain by Emotions and Attention

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Pain, Emotion and Cognition

Abstract

In this chapter, the effects of emotions on the spinal and cerebral processes underlying nociception and pain perception are examined. Throughout the chapter, the effects of emotions will be compared with those of attention, and the potential interactions between emotions and attention will be discussed. The overall portrait that emerges from this literature review is that emotions and attention can exert their effects at multiple levels of pain processing, from the spinal cord to the cerebral cortex. Moreover, because of the highly integrated and dynamic nature of the neural processes underlying pain perception, it is difficult to identify the origins of emotions’ and attention’s effects on pain. Future research should therefore aim at probing the effects of emotions and attention at various levels of pain processing by combining different psychophysiological methods.

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  1. PERFORM Centre, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, QC, H4B 1R6, Canada

    Mathieu Roy PhD

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  1. Mathieu Roy PhD
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  1. Clinical Pharmacology Department, University Hospital CIC Inserm1405, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Gisèle Pickering

  2. Clinical Research Division, Royal Melbourne Hospital National Ageing Research Institute, Victoria, Australia

    Stephen Gibson

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Roy, M. (2015). Cerebral and Spinal Modulation of Pain by Emotions and Attention. In: Pickering, G., Gibson, S. (eds) Pain, Emotion and Cognition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12033-1_3

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