title: Self-construal priming modulates pain perception: event-related potential evidence.
abstract: We investigated whether and how temporary shifts in self-construals modulate neural correlates of pain perception. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to painful and non-painful electrical stimulations were recorded from adults after being primed with independent and interdependent self-construals. Electrical stimulations to the left hand elicited two negative components (N60 and N130) over the frontal /central regions and two positive components (P90 and P300) over the central/parietal regions with larger amplitudes over the right rather than the left hemispheres. Painful vs. non-painful stimulations enlarged P90, N130, and P300 amplitudes. Independent vs. interdependent self-construal priming induced larger N130 amplitudes to painful stimulations but did not affect the N130 amplitudes to non-painful stimulations. The self-construal priming effect on the P300 amplitudes to painful stimulation positively correlated with self-reported interdependence. Our ERP results suggest that temporary shifts in self-construals affect pain perception by modulating the neural activities engaged in early somatosensory and late evaluation processing of physical pain.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University , Beijing , P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chenbo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yina
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Shihui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D058748:Pain Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult