RELATIONSHIPS AMONG PAIN THRESHOLD, SELF-REGULATION, EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING, AND AUTONOMIC ACTIVITY: A GENERAL INHIBITORY SYSTEM PERSPECTIVE

Chronic pain patients have poorer pain inhibition, self-regulatory ability, executive functioning and autonomic inhibition than those without pain, supporting the view that suppressing pain is mentally taxing. In the current study, an alternate explanation was proposed; namely, that pain inhibition, self-regulation, executive functions, and heart rate variability (HRV) are all controlled by the same general inhibitory system. To test this hypothesis, participants came into the laboratory for three sessions. At the first session, individual differences in pain thresholds, self-regulatory strength, executive functioning, and HRV were measured. At the second and third sessions, self-regulatory persistence and within-session changes in pain thresholds were measured under conditions of high and low self-regulatory fatigue. Results revealed that those low in inhibitory strength, operationalized as the aggregate of pain inhibition, self-regulation, executive functioning, and HRV, became more sensitive to pain under conditions of self-regulatory fatigue, whereas no significant changes in pain threshold were found for those high in inhibitory strength. Additional analyses revealed that high baseline pain threshold marginally protected against the effects of self-regulatory fatigue. The findings provide some support for a general inhibitory system and suggest that physiological inhibition of pain and autonomic activity may be influenced by phasic self-regulatory fatigue

Maintenance of Positive Affect Following Pain in Younger and Older Adults

Socioemotional selectivity theory posits that as people age, they become motivated and successful at maximizing positive emotions and minimizing negative ones. Yet, 70% of older adults report physical pain, which is associated with negative affect. The strategies and resources that older adults use to maintain positive affect in the face of pain remain largely unknown. Specific positivity-enhancing strategies include recalling, recognizing, and responding to positive stimuli and prioritizing close over knowledgeable social partners. Executive functions (EF, i.e., task-switching, working memory, and inhibition) and heart rate variability (HRV) may be important resources for coping with pain. The current project used two studies to test whether older adults used positivityenhancing strategies and maintained emotional wellbeing following pain more than younger adults; associations with EF and HRV were also investigated. In Study 1, 50 older and 50 younger adults experienced a control and a pain condition, were given the chance to employ positivity-enhancing strategies, and provided EF and HRV data. Study 2 used longitudinal data from community-dwelling older adults (n =150) to test whether task-switching moderated the within-person relationship between pain and wellbeing. In Study 1, after the pain condition, younger adults demonstrated lesser preference toward knowledgeable social partners than older adults (γ = -0.15, p = .016). No other age group x pain condition x valence interactions were found. Older and younger adults did not differ in changes in positive or negative affect following pain. Task-switching and HRV were both associated with reduced preference for knowledgeable social partners following pain, but no other significant EF or HRV interactions were found. Study 2 failed to support the hypothesis that task-switching protected against pain-related declines in wellbeing. Future research on strategies that older adults use to maintain emotional wellbeing in the face of pain is needed

Psychosocial Functioning and the Cortisol Awakening Response: Meta-Analysis, \u3cem\u3eP\u3c/em\u3e-Curve Analysis, and Evaluation of the Evidential Value in Existing Studies

Cortisol levels rise immediately after awakening and peak approximately 30-45 minutes thereafter. Psychosocial functioning influences this cortisol awakening response (CAR), but there is considerable heterogeneity in the literature. The current study used p-curve and metaanalysis on 709 findings from 212 studies to test the evidential value and estimate effect sizes of four sets of findings: those associating worse psychosocial functioning with higher or lower cortisol increase relative to the waking period (CARi) and to the output of the waking period (AUCw). All four sets of findings demonstrated evidential value. Psychosocial predictors explained 1%-3.6% of variance in CARi and AUCw responses. Based on these effect sizes, cross-sectional studies assessing CAR would need a minimum sample size of 617-783 to detect true effects with 80% power. Depression was linked to higher AUCw and posttraumatic stress to lower AUCw, whereas inconclusive results were obtained for predictor-specific effects on CARi. Suggestions for future CAR research are discussed