By means of the administration of a visual search task, an associative learning task, and an antisaccade task, we aim to resolve the primary research question whether a painful hand (more than a non-painful hand) positioned nearby a visual stimulus…
ID
Source
Brief title
Condition
- Joint disorders
- Peripheral neuropathies
Synonym
Research involving
Sponsors and support
Intervention
Outcome measures
Primary outcome
Reaction time (RT) to targets in a visual search task. When an irrelevant
distractor is presented during the visual search, attention is captured and
response times become longer as compared to no-distractor present trials. This
RT effect is expected to vary according to the presence and the spatial
position of the painful hand.
Secondary outcome
Detection accuracy, *learnability*; the speed (number of trials necessary) at
which a participant learns and *unlearns* a new association between two events;
number of trials that are required to learn a new association, saccade latency;
delay in response times of eye movements, saccade accuracy; eye movement in the
correct direction.
Background summary
Experiencing pain in case of bodily damage is normal and important for
survival. Pain draws attention away from ongoing activities. This allows us to
execute an appropriate response. Knowing before-hand what could potentially be
painful helps us even further in protecting our body, but we have to learn what
is potentially harmful and what is not. In chronic pain patients such pain
related attention and learning mechanisms are suggested to be hampered. The
underlying mechanism, however, remains unclear.
Study objective
By means of the administration of a visual search task, an associative learning
task, and an antisaccade task, we aim to resolve the primary research question
whether a painful hand (more than a non-painful hand) positioned nearby a
visual stimulus (more than far away) slows down or speeds up processing of the
target as determined by task reaction times. Secondary objectives are to assess
1) whether the spatial distance between visual and pain stimuli affects the
speed and strength of learning a new association between the two, and 2)
whether the spatial distance between pain and visual information affects the
speed of *unlearning* the relation between the two.
Study design
The proposed study has a within subjects repeated measures design with the
following factors and levels for both the visual attentional and learning
tasks: Distractor presence (distractor absent/ distractor), Pain condition
(painful hand/ normal hand), Spatial location (left upper quadrant, left lower
quadrant, right upper quadrant, right lower quadrant; categorized in near/ far)
and with reaction time as the dependent variable.
Study burden and risks
Participants may experience negative emotions during the study, and the pain
stimuli can be experienced as annoying, although the used methods are low on
invasiveness. The knowledge gained with the present research has implications
for improving treatment and/ or diagnostic approaches: the benefits clearly
outweigh the costs.
Heidelberglaan 2
Utrecht 3584 CS
NL
Heidelberglaan 2
Utrecht 3584 CS
NL
Listed location countries
Age
Inclusion criteria
All participants will be healthy and pain-free as determined by self-report, between 18 and 75 years of age, and capable of speaking and reading Dutch.
Exclusion criteria
Participants will be excluded when they use psychotropic or analgesic drugs (e.g., opioids such as morphine or tramadol, tricyclic antidepressants such as amitriptyline or nortriptyline, anticonvulsants such as gabapentin or carbamazepine, or antipsychotics such as haloperidol) that affect reaction times or pain perception, or when participants are allergic for Spanish peppers or have psoriasis on one of their hands.
Design
Recruitment
Followed up by the following (possibly more current) registration
No registrations found.
Other (possibly less up-to-date) registrations in this register
No registrations found.
In other registers
| Register | ID |
|---|---|
| CCMO | NL45619.041.13 |