In: Psychological Science, 31 (2020), Nr. 9. pp. 1191-1199. ISSN 0956-7976 (Druck-Ausg.), 1467-9280 (Online-Ausg.)
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Abstract
The notion that reward inhibits pain is a well-supported observation in both humans and animals, allowing suppression of pain reflexes to acquired rewarding stimuli. However, a blanket inhibition of pain by reward would also impair pain discrimination. In contrast, early counterconditioning experiments implied that reward might actually spare pain discrimination. To test this hypothesis, we investigated whether discriminative performance was enhanced or inhibited by reward. We found in adult human volunteers (N = 25) that pain-based discriminative ability is actually enhanced by reward, especially when reward is directly contingent on discriminative performance. Drift-diffusion modeling shows that this relates to an augmentation of the underlying sensory signal strength and is not merely an effect of decision bias. This enhancement of sensory-discriminative pain-information processing suggests that whereas reward can promote reward-acquiring behavior by inhibition of pain in some circumstances, it can also facilitate important discriminative information of the sensory input when necessary.
Document type: | Article |
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Journal or Publication Title: | Psychological Science |
Volume: | 31 |
Number: | 9 |
Publisher: | Sage (Publ.) |
Place of Publication: | Thousand Oaks, Calif. ; London |
Edition: | Zweitveröffentlichung |
Date Deposited: | 27 Nov 2020 14:17 |
Date: | 2020 |
ISSN: | 0956-7976 (Druck-Ausg.), 1467-9280 (Online-Ausg.) |
Page Range: | pp. 1191-1199 |
Faculties / Institutes: | Service facilities > Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit |
DDC-classification: | 150 Psychology |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | pain perception, discrimination, reward, drift-diffusion model, response bias, sensory strength |
Additional Information: | Dieser Beitrag ist aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich. *** This publication is freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively. |