Facing pain is effortful: a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the effects of pain on perception of effort and performance

面对疼痛是需要付出努力的：采用多学科方法来研究疼痛对努力和表现的感知的影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-05057
• 负责人: Pageaux, Benjamin
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: Université de Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=714734
• 关键词: Facing; pain; effortful; multidisciplinary; approach

Every day, when we perform voluntary physical and mental tasks, such as climbing the stairs or solving complex puzzle, we perceive effort. The perception of effort is associated with voluntary actions, contributes to the sense of agency, and provides crucial information on the perceived cost of personal actions. Interestingly, while it seems obvious that when we perceive pain the tasks of our everyday life become more effortful (or harder), this assumption has not been investigated. The proposed work uses a multidisciplinary approach to understand how pain impacts performance and the perception of effort during cognitive, physical and dual tasks. The first objective will be to test the hypothesis that the preservation of cognitive and physical performance in the presence of pain is due to an increase in resource allocation that is reflected in an increased perceived effort (subproject 1, performed by undergraduate students supervised by the principal investigator -PI- and mentored by one PhD student). The second objective will be to test the hypothesis that the increased perception of effort in the presence of pain during cognitive and physical performance is associated with alterations in corticospinal excitability (subproject 2, performed by MSc students supervised by the PI). The third objective will be to identify brain networks involved in perception of effort, during cognitive and physical performance, and to characterize their interactions with pain-related brain networks (subproject 3, performed by PhD students co-supervised by the PI and his collaborators experienced with brain activations and networks measurement and analysis). The research costs include each year one full i) BSc Honours research fellowship, ii) MSc fellowship and iii) PhD fellowship. The methodological complexity is in line with the HPQs involved in each subproject. Subproject 1 focuses on behavioural studies. Subproject 2 requires the HPQ to master transcranial magnetic stimulation, and subproject 3 requires the HPQ to master brain imaging. For these reasons, these two subprojects will be the pillar of funding for PhD and MSc research fellowships. The multidisciplinary approach proposed is unique as it investigates the construct of effort and its perception across domains (mental and physical). The proposed work will contribute to the basic neuroscience of perception of effort by providing new insights into this perception involved i) in the self-regulation of behaviour in the context of goal-oriented tasks and ii) in the decreased performance in the presence of fatigue. As no study previously investigated the possibility that the negative impact of pain on performance could be mediated by its impact on perception of effort, this project contributes to better understand how facing pain makes voluntary tasks harder. The proposed work has a strong potential to open new lines of research to better understand how pain impacts performance.

每天，当我们自愿执行体力和脑力任务时，例如爬楼梯或解决复杂的难题，我们会感受到努力。对努力的感知与自愿行动相关，有助于增强代理感，并提供有关个人行为感知成本的重要信息。有趣的是，虽然很明显，当我们感知到疼痛时，我们日常生活中的任务会变得更加费力（或更困难），但这一假设尚未得到研究。 拟议的工作采用多学科方法来了解疼痛如何影响认知、身体和双重任务期间的表现和努力感知。第一个目标是检验这样的假设：在疼痛的情况下认知和身体表现的保持是由于资源分配的增加，这反映在感知努力的增加（子项目 1，由校长监督的本科生执行）研究员 -PI- 并由一名博士生指导）。第二个目标是检验这样的假设：在认知和身体表现过程中，在疼痛的情况下，努力感的增加与皮质脊髓兴奋性的改变有关（子项目 2，由 PI 监督下的硕士生执行）。第三个目标是识别在认知和身体表现过程中参与努力感知的大脑网络，并描述它们与疼痛相关大脑网络的相互作用（子项目 3，由 PI 和他的合作者共同监督的博士生进行）与大脑激活和网络测量和分析）。 研究费用包括每年全额 i) 理学学士荣誉研究奖学金、ii) 理学硕士奖学金和 iii) 博士奖学金。方法的复杂性与每个子项目涉及的 HPQ 一致。子项目 1 侧重于行为研究。子项目2要求HPQ掌握经颅磁刺激，子项目3要求HPQ掌握脑成像。由于这些原因，这两个子项目将成为博士和理学硕士研究奖学金的资助支柱。 所提出的多学科方法是独特的，因为它研究了努力的构造及其跨领域（精神和身体）的感知。拟议的工作将通过提供对这种感知的新见解，为努力感知的基础神经科学做出贡献：i）在目标导向的任务背景下的行为自我调节；ii）在疲劳的情况下表现下降。由于之前没有研究调查疼痛对表现的负面影响可以通过其对努力感知的影响来调节，因此该项目有助于更好地理解面对疼痛如何使志愿任务变得更加困难。拟议的工作很有可能开辟新的研究领域，以更好地了解疼痛如何影响表现。