Time course of attention interruption after transient pain stimulation

Human brains perceive an enormous amount of information in any given moment. It is crucial for survival that individuals can allocate more attentional resources to relevant information. In particular, threatening stimuli can capture attentional resources at the expense of other, neutral, stimuli.2 The abilities to detect and respond to bodily threats rapidly are undoubtedly adaptive to survival. While attention is useful in protecting the pursuit of current goals and ongoing behavior from less important demands, in an unpredictable and potentially dangerous environment, it may be necessary to interrupt ongoing behavior to address an emerging threat.

Source: The Journal of Pain - June 12, 2020 Category: Materials Science Authors: Wenxiao Gong, Jifang Li, Fei Luo Tags: Original Reports Source Type: research