Effects of Experimentally Induced Pain on Value-Based Decision-Making in Healthy Adults

Abstract

Every day we make decisions that influence our well-being. Because of this, it is crucial that we make the most optimal decisions possible in order to minimize unnecessary loss or suffering. Some groups might be more vulnerable to making maladaptive choices, such as those suffering with chronic pain, which is associated with various cognitive impairments. As it currently stands there is not a clear link between pain and decision-making strategies in the literature, but there is however research showcasing that other aversive stimulus indeed do affect our reliance on the Pavlovian Bias regarding decision-making, suggesting that pain might influence it in a similar fashion as the other aversive stimuli. In this study we tested whether pain would be a modulator of the degree of Pavlovian bias in (N = 50) healthy Norwegian-speaking adults. We developed a protocol for safely and effectively inducing tonic heat pain and used this protocol in parallel with an orthogonalized Go/NoGo value-based decision-making card-game. The game consisted of 5 blocks, where block 2 and 4 was paired with a manipulation of either a painful or warm stimulation. We found that pain overall had no effect on task performance accuracy, but there was some indication that pain increased Pavlovian bias in the aversive domain. Although this effect was not very strong, it could be stronger in patients suffering with long-term (chronic) pain, leading them to make more maladaptive decisions in everyday life. Future studies should try to replicate the findings detailed in this thesis with a larger and more diverse sample.