BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE OF PAIN AVOIDANCE : COGNITIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL BIASES UNDERMINING PAIN CONTROLLABILITY

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Pain signals the presence of an urgent threat to our corporal integrity; it calls for our complete attention and commands immediate action. However, pain also marks an error in the long chain of decisions that ultimately led us to expose ourselves to danger. Pain therefore also compels us to reassess our future action plans. The effects of pain thus resonate far beyond the immediate painful experience: anticipation of future pain based on past painful experiences influences our current decisions, mood, and pain sensitivity. Hence, from the standpoint of behavioral control systems, unremitting uncontrollable pain is the worst possible scenario one can be confronted with. Unfortunately, this is the challenge that millions of patients with chronic pain are facing every day. Alas, we are still lacking basic knowledge of the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying pain’s behavioral effects, as research in humans has so far predominantly focused on the immediate experiential properties of painful stimulations (i.e., how pain feels). The objective of the proposed research program will therefore be to identify the cerebral mechanisms underlying cognitive and motivational biases that can undermine successful control over pain.