Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Aug;10(8):1030-7.
doi: 10.1093/scan/nsu156. Epub 2015 Jan 1.

Attachment style moderates partner presence effects on pain: a laser-evoked potentials study

Charlotte Krahé  1 , Yannis Paloyelis  2 , Heather Condon  3 , Paul M Jenkinson  3 , Steven C R Williams  2 , Aikaterini Fotopoulou  4
Affiliations

Attachment style moderates partner presence effects on pain: a laser-evoked potentials study

Charlotte Krahé et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2015 Aug.

Abstract

Social support is crucial for psychological and physical well-being. Yet, in experimental and clinical pain research, the presence of others has been found to both attenuate and intensify pain. To investigate the factors underlying these mixed effects, we administered noxious laser stimuli to 39 healthy women while their romantic partner was present or absent, and measured pain ratings and laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) to assess the effects of partner presence on subjective pain experience and underlying neural processes. Further, we examined whether individual differences in adult attachment style (AAS), alone or in interaction with the partner's level of attentional focus (manipulated to be either on or away from the participant) might modulate these effects. We found that the effects of partner presence vs absence on pain-related measures depended on AAS but not partner attentional focus. The higher participants' attachment avoidance, the higher pain ratings and N2 and P2 local peak amplitudes were in the presence compared with the absence of the romantic partner. As LEPs are thought to reflect activity relating to the salience of events, our data suggest that partner presence may influence the perceived salience of events threatening the body, particularly in individuals who tend to mistrust others.

Keywords: attachment style; laser-evoked potentials; pain; social presence; social support.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Partner presence by attachment avoidance interaction effects for pain rating (top panel), N2 local peak amplitude (middle panel) and P2 local peak amplitude (bottom panel). Statistically significant differences are marked by asterisk.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Bentley DE, Derbyshire SWG, Youell PD, Jones AKP. Caudal cingulate cortex involvement in pain processing: An inter-individual laser evoked potential source localisation study using realistic head models. Pain. 2003;102:265–71. - PubMed
    1. Bowlby J. Attachment and loss, vol. 1: Attachment. London: Random House; 1997/1969.
    1. Bromm B, Treede RD. Nerve fibre discharges, cerebral potentials and sensations induced by CO2 laser stimulation. Human Neurobiology. 1984;3:33–40. - PubMed
    1. Brown JL, Sheffield D, Leary MR, Robinson ME. Social support and experimental pain. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2003;65:276–83. - PubMed
    1. Coan JA. Toward a neuroscience of attachment. In: Cassidy J, Shaver PR, editors. Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications. 2nd edn. New York: Guilford Press; 2008. pp. 241–65.

Publication types