Cognitive exertion affects the appraisal of one’s own and other people’s pain
Abstract Correctly evaluating others’ pain is a crucial prosocial ability. In both clinical and private settings, caregivers assess their other people’s pain, sometimes under the effect of poor sleep and high workload and fatigue. However, the effect played by such cognitive strain in the appraisal...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35103-w |
| _version_ | 1827943559480737792 |
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| author | Laura Riontino Raphaël Fournier Alexandra Lapteva Nicolas Silvestrini Sophie Schwartz Corrado Corradi-Dell’Acqua |
| author_facet | Laura Riontino Raphaël Fournier Alexandra Lapteva Nicolas Silvestrini Sophie Schwartz Corrado Corradi-Dell’Acqua |
| author_sort | Laura Riontino |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Correctly evaluating others’ pain is a crucial prosocial ability. In both clinical and private settings, caregivers assess their other people’s pain, sometimes under the effect of poor sleep and high workload and fatigue. However, the effect played by such cognitive strain in the appraisal of others’ pain remains unclear. Fifty participants underwent one of two demanding tasks, involving either working memory (Experiment 1: N-Back task) or cognitive interference (Experiment 2: Stroop task). After each task, participants were exposed to painful laser stimulations at three intensity levels (low, medium, high), or video-clips of patients experiencing three intensity levels of pain (low, medium, high). Participants rated the intensity of each pain event on a visual analogue scale. We found that the two tasks influenced rating of both one’s own and others’ pain, by decreasing the sensitivity to medium and high events. This was observed either when comparing the demanding condition to a control (Stroop), or when modelling linearly the difficulty/performance of each depleting task (N-Back). We provide converging evidence that cognitive exertion affects the subsequent appraisal of one’s own and likewise others’ pain. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T10:17:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-df98baf9bb33466ea1ea7d2b7ab1d412 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T10:17:15Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-df98baf9bb33466ea1ea7d2b7ab1d4122023-05-21T11:12:46ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-05-0113111410.1038/s41598-023-35103-wCognitive exertion affects the appraisal of one’s own and other people’s painLaura Riontino0Raphaël Fournier1Alexandra Lapteva2Nicolas Silvestrini3Sophie Schwartz4Corrado Corradi-Dell’Acqua5Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of GenevaDepartment of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, University of GenevaUniversity of BernDepartment of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of GenevaDepartment of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, University of GenevaDepartment of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of GenevaAbstract Correctly evaluating others’ pain is a crucial prosocial ability. In both clinical and private settings, caregivers assess their other people’s pain, sometimes under the effect of poor sleep and high workload and fatigue. However, the effect played by such cognitive strain in the appraisal of others’ pain remains unclear. Fifty participants underwent one of two demanding tasks, involving either working memory (Experiment 1: N-Back task) or cognitive interference (Experiment 2: Stroop task). After each task, participants were exposed to painful laser stimulations at three intensity levels (low, medium, high), or video-clips of patients experiencing three intensity levels of pain (low, medium, high). Participants rated the intensity of each pain event on a visual analogue scale. We found that the two tasks influenced rating of both one’s own and others’ pain, by decreasing the sensitivity to medium and high events. This was observed either when comparing the demanding condition to a control (Stroop), or when modelling linearly the difficulty/performance of each depleting task (N-Back). We provide converging evidence that cognitive exertion affects the subsequent appraisal of one’s own and likewise others’ pain.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35103-w |
| spellingShingle | Laura Riontino Raphaël Fournier Alexandra Lapteva Nicolas Silvestrini Sophie Schwartz Corrado Corradi-Dell’Acqua Cognitive exertion affects the appraisal of one’s own and other people’s pain Scientific Reports |
| title | Cognitive exertion affects the appraisal of one’s own and other people’s pain |
| title_full | Cognitive exertion affects the appraisal of one’s own and other people’s pain |
| title_fullStr | Cognitive exertion affects the appraisal of one’s own and other people’s pain |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cognitive exertion affects the appraisal of one’s own and other people’s pain |
| title_short | Cognitive exertion affects the appraisal of one’s own and other people’s pain |
| title_sort | cognitive exertion affects the appraisal of one s own and other people s pain |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35103-w |
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