OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether increasing the demand for central cognitive processing involved in a distraction task, by involving the child in ongoing, effortful interaction with the distraction stimulus, would increase children's tolerance for cold pressor pain. METHODS: Seventy-nine children ages 6-15 years underwent a baseline cold pressor trial followed by two cold pressor trials in which they received interactive distraction (i.e., used voice commands to play a videogame) or passive distraction (in which they merely watched the output from the same videogame segment) in counterbalanced order. Both distraction conditions were presented via a virtual reality-type helmet. RESULTS: As expected, children demonstrated significant improvement in pain tolerance during distraction relative to baseline. Children showed the greatest improvement during the interactive distraction task. CONCLUSION: The effects of distraction on children's cold pressor pain tolerance are significantly enhanced when the distraction task also includes greater demands for central cognitive processing.
OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether increasing the demand for central cognitive processing involved in a distraction task, by involving the child in ongoing, effortful interaction with the distraction stimulus, would increase children's tolerance for cold pressor pain. METHODS: Seventy-nine children ages 6-15 years underwent a baseline cold pressor trial followed by two cold pressor trials in which they received interactive distraction (i.e., used voice commands to play a videogame) or passive distraction (in which they merely watched the output from the same videogame segment) in counterbalanced order. Both distraction conditions were presented via a virtual reality-type helmet. RESULTS: As expected, children demonstrated significant improvement in pain tolerance during distraction relative to baseline. Children showed the greatest improvement during the interactive distraction task. CONCLUSION: The effects of distraction on children's cold pressor pain tolerance are significantly enhanced when the distraction task also includes greater demands for central cognitive processing.
Authors: Jennie C I Tsao; Laura C Seidman; Subhadra Evans; Kirsten C Lung; Lonnie K Zeltzer; Bruce D Naliboff Journal: J Pain Date: 2013-03-27 Impact factor: 5.820
Authors: Hiran Thabrew; Karolina Stasiak; Sarah E Hetrick; Stephen Wong; Jessica H Huss; Sally N Merry Journal: Cochrane Database Syst Rev Date: 2018-08-15
Authors: Najood A Al-Ghamdi; Walter J Meyer; Barbara Atzori; Wadee Alhalabi; Clayton C Seibel; David Ullman; Hunter G Hoffman Journal: Front Hum Neurosci Date: 2020-01-23 Impact factor: 3.169
Authors: Henry Xiang; Jiabin Shen; Krista K Wheeler; Jeremy Patterson; Kimberly Lever; Megan Armstrong; Junxin Shi; Rajan K Thakkar; Jonathan I Groner; Dana Noffsinger; Sheila A Giles; Renata B Fabia Journal: JAMA Netw Open Date: 2021-06-01