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

疼痛标志着对我们身体完整性的紧急威胁；它要求我们完全关注并立即采取行动。然而，痛苦也标志着一系列决定中的一个错误，这些决定最终导致我们将自己暴露在危险中。因此，痛苦也迫使我们重新评估我们未来的行动计划。因此，疼痛的影响远远超出了直接的痛苦体验：根据过去的痛苦经历对未来疼痛的预期会影响我们当前的决定、情绪和疼痛敏感性。因此，从行为控制系统的角度来看，无休止的无法控制的疼痛是一个人可能面临的最糟糕的情况。不幸的是，这是数百万慢性疼痛患者每天面临的挑战。遗憾的是，我们仍然缺乏对疼痛行为影响的神经生理学机制的基本了解，因为到目前为止，人类的研究主要集中在疼痛刺激的直接体验特性(即疼痛的感觉)。因此，拟议的研究计划的目标将是确定认知和动机偏见背后的大脑机制，这些偏见可能会破坏对疼痛的成功控制。

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.