title: A pain in the bud? Implications of cross-modal sensitivity for pain experience.
abstract: There is growing evidence that enhanced sensitivity to painful clinical procedures and chronic pain are related to greater sensitivity to other sensory inputs, such as bitter taste. We examined cross-modal sensitivities in two studies. Study 1 assessed associations between bitter taste sensitivity, pain tolerance, and fear of pain in 48 healthy young adults. Participants were classified as non-tasters, tasters and super-tasters using a bitter taste test (6-n-propythiouracil; PROP). The latter group had significantly higher fear of pain (Fear of Pain Questionnaire) than tasters (p=.036, effect size r = .48). There was only a trend for an association between bitter taste intensity ratings and intensity of pain at the point of pain tolerance in a cold pressor test (p=.04). In Study 2, 40 healthy young adults completed the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile before rating intensity and unpleasantness of innocuous (33 °C), moderate (41 °C), and high intensity (44 °C) thermal pain stimulations. The sensory-sensitivity subscale was positively correlated with both intensity and unpleasantness ratings. Canonical correlation showed that only sensitivity to audition and touch (not taste/smell) were associated with intensity of moderate and high (not innocuous) thermal stimuli. Together these findings suggest that there are cross-modal associations predominantly between sensitivity to exteroceptive inputs (i.e., taste, touch, sound) and the affective dimensions of pain, including noxious heat and intolerable cold pain, in healthy adults. These cross-modal sensitivities may arise due to greater psychological aversion to salient sensations, or from shared neural circuitry for processing disparate sensory modalities.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute of Cognitive & Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perkins
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Marien
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Bruyne
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University, 99 Commercial Road Clayton, VIC, Melbourne, 3000, Australia. melita.giummarra@monash.edu.|Caulfield Pain Management & Research Centre, Caulfield, VIC, Melbourne, Australia. melita.giummarra@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Melita J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Giummarra
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bitter sensitivity; Cold pressor test; Cross-modal; Fear; PROP; Pain; Taste