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Article Summaries for November-December 2018 Psychosomatic Medicine, Volume 80, Issue 9.

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he theme of this issue of Psychosomatic Medicine is “The Neuroscience Effects of expectations on pain perception have been well documented, yet Tof Pain,” with a focus on biobehavioral, developmental,… Click to show full abstract

he theme of this issue of Psychosomatic Medicine is “The Neuroscience Effects of expectations on pain perception have been well documented, yet Tof Pain,” with a focus on biobehavioral, developmental, and psychosocial mechanisms that are relevant to intervention. In the introduction to the special issue, Guest Editors Lauren Y. Atlas and Mustafa al’Absi focus on the following themes: (1) risk factors and early adversity as related to chronic pain; (2) the role of expectations in shaping pain perception; and (3)mechanisms of interventions targeting pain modulation. The article concludes by outlining new targets for research, including the neurobiology of pain, important methodological challenges, and targets for personalized pain interventions. Pages 788–790; http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000642 Cotton et al. compared perceptual and autonomic responses to pain between yoga practitioners and controls. Autonomic responses to pain, including skin conductance and heart rate, differed between people who had been practicing yoga on a regular basis for at least 6 years and physically healthy active volunteers, despite having similar pain ratings. These findings suggest that autonomic reactivity to pain may be altered by factors common to yoga practice, such as deep breathing, relaxation, and mindfulness. Pages 791–798; http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000587 Because of the potential for mindfulness-basedmeditation to alleviate the experience of anxiety, perceived stress, and pain, the practice has drawn the interest of the scientific community. In an experimental setting, Taylor et al. explored the pain modulating impact of classical fear learning in meditation practitioners and control participants. Experienced meditators showed decreased effects of fear conditioning on pain at a higher-order perceptual level of processing. These findings highlight potential mechanisms underlying mindfulness-related hypoalgesia, relevant to clinical conditions in which repeated pain exposure might reinforce hyperalgesic processes through fear-conditioning. Pages 799–806; http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000634 Studies have consistently shown that long-term meditation practice is associated with reduced pain, but the neural mechanisms by which long-term meditation practice reduces pain remain unclear. In healthy experienced meditation practitioners,May et al. tested endogenous opioid involvement in meditation analgesia in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over design. Naloxone not only failed to eliminate meditation analgesia, it enhanced meditation analgesia, suggesting that long-term meditation practice does not rely on endogenous opioids to reduce pain. Pages 807–813; http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000580 Contextual factors can transform how people experience pain, particularly if pain is associated with positive outcomes. In a study from López-Solà et al., participants were given the opportunity to choose to receive pain on behalf of their romantic partners. Placing pain in a context of prosocial meaning reduced its unpleasantness but not its intensity and increased positive thoughts and pleasant feelings during pain. Positive effects were stronger in participants with greater willingness to accept their partner’s pain and were associated with augmented activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region involved in affective meaning representations. Pages 814–825; http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000609 The aim of a functional magnetic resonance imaging study byKoenen et al. was to compare behavioral and neural anticipatory responses to cues predicting either somatic or visceral pain in an associative learning paradigm. For the visceral modality, enhanced negative emotional learning and higher engagement of the posterior insula during cued pain anticipation were found, suggesting greater salience of interoceptive, visceral pain. The article provides directions for future research on the pathophysiology and neurobiology of chronic pain conditions, especially chronic visceral pain. Pages 826–835; http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000612

Keywords: medicine; http doi; doi org; org 1097; meditation; pain

Journal Title: Psychosomatic Medicine
Year Published: 2018

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