Effects of perceived and exerted pain control on neural activity during pain relief in experimental heat...

Perceived control over pain can attenuate pain perception by mechanisms of endogenous pain control and emotional reappraisal irrespective of whether this control is exerted or only perceived. Self-initiated termination of pain elicits different expectations of subsequent pain relief as compared to perceived pain control. It is unknown whether and how this perceived vs. exerted control on pain differs and affects subsequent pain relief. Using fMRI, we studied two factors of pain control on pain relief: the (i) sense of control (perceived control but no execution) and (ii) the execution of control (exerted control). To account for the impact of factual execution of pain control on pain relief we applied bearable short and hardly bearable long contact-heat stimuli which were applied either controllable or not. Using controllability as factor, there was dissociable neural activity during pain relief: following the perceived control condition neural activity was found in the orbitofrontal and mediofrontal cortex and, following the exerted control condition, in the anterolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex. We conclude that (i) pain controllability has an impact on pain relief and (ii) the prefrontal cortex shows dissociable neural activity during pain relief following exerted vs. perceived pain control. This might reflect the higher grade of uncertainty during pain relief following perceived pain control mediated by the orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal cortex and processes of working memory and updating expectations during pain relief following exerted control mediated by the lateral prefrontal cortex.