Pain cues could be learned without conscious awareness
Washington: A new study has revealed that subconscious learning can shape pain responses.
In study led from Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, researchers report that people can be conditioned to associate images with particular pain responses, like improved tolerance to pain, even when they aren't consciously aware of the images.
Until now it has been unclear if it is necessary to be consciously aware of the cue in order to learn the association. In this recent study, Karin Jensen and colleagues tested whether unconscious learning affected pain responses, by using subliminal images and training participants to associate a certain image with high pain and another image with low pain.
The study, which involved 49 participants in all, suggests that pain cues could be learned without conscious awareness, as participants reported increased pain when shown the high pain image and reduced pain when shown the low pain image during identical levels of pain stimulation, regardless of whether or not the images were shown subliminally.
The results show that pain responses can be shaped by learning that takes place outside conscious awareness, suggesting that unconscious learning may have an extensive effect on higher cognitive processes in general, said Jensen.
The findings are being published in the journal PNAS.
( Source : ANI )
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