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Modulating the development of secondary hyperalgesia through a tailored and engaging working memory task.

Year: 2023
Type: preprint
Abstract: Central sensitisation refers to the enhanced responsiveness of nociceptive neurons in the central nervous system and plays a crucial role in the development of chronic pain. In humans, central sensitization can be observed through the phenomenon of secondary hyperalgesia, which manifests as increased responsiveness to mechanical stimuli in the area surrounding an injury. Because of their ability to control the transmission and the processing of nociceptive inputs, cognitive factors, such as attention, may represent a potential flexible mechanism that could affect the development of secondary hyperalgesia, and consequently central sensitisation. We aim to assess whether performing a tailored, demanding, and engaging working memory task that is unrelated to pain (high-load group) could lead to lower development of secondary hyperalgesia, in comparison to a task that does not require attentional resources to be performed (low-load group). To do this we will use a double-blind, between-subjects study design. Participants will be assigned to one of the two conditions following a block-randomization. To condition participants to develop secondary hyperalgesia, high-frequency electrocutaneous stimulation (HFS) will be applied to participants’ non-dominant forearms. Sensitivity to a mechanical pinprick stimulus will be used to estimate the development of secondary hyperalgesia. The assessment will be repeated three times: as a baseline measurement (T0), 20 (T1) and 40 (T2) minutes after the delivery of HFS in combination with the working memory task. The delivery of the HFS pulses will be time-locked to the working memory task. To perform the task correctly, participants will need to stay focused on the task and ignore the HFS pulses. However, since in the low-load group no mental effort is required to perform the task, we expect that participants will allocate their attentional resources towards the HFS pulses. In contrast, given that the high load working memory task is more demanding, fewer resources will be available to process the HFS pulses, reducing their ability to capture attention. Therefore, we assume that the change in mechanical sensitivity will be higher from T0 to T1 and from T0 to T2 in the low-load group compared to the high-load group.
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7020795244
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