Attentional bias toward pictorial representations of pain in individuals with chronic headache.
OBJECTIVE
This study investigated attentional biases for pictorial headache-related stimuli in individuals with chronic headache and healthy controls.


METHODS
Attentional bias was assessed using a visual probe task that presented headache-related images and neutral images at 2 exposure duration conditions, 500 and 1250 ms.


RESULTS
The results indicated that individuals with chronic daily headache showed a significantly greater overall attentional bias across presentation times toward headache-related stimuli compared with the controls, which indicates a bias in both initial orienting and maintained attention to pain cues in this group.


CONCLUSIONS
It is concluded that both hypervigilance and sustained processing are critical factors for the maintenance of chronic pain.
Schoth
Daniel E
DE
School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Liossi
Christina
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D020773:Headache Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D017288:Pain Threshold; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult