RESUMEN
ObjectiveTo investigate the effect and gender differences of experimental moderate pain on attentional bias towards pain-related words.MethodsWith the tourniquet around the left upper limb,32 healthy college students were asked to perform two dot-probe tasks including five kinds of pain-related words,one task with the tourniquet deflating and the other task with the tourniquet inflating to 200 mm Hg pressure.The reaction time (RT) and the error rate of recognition task were recorded.The pain intensity and distress were recorded too.Results ( 1 ) Compared with no pain condition ( RT of affective and social-threat words were (507 ± 78 ) ms,(504 ±89 )ms respectively),the react time was shorter in female in the condition of tourniquet pain,particularly for affective and social-threat words (the RT were (464 ± 79 )ms,(465 ± 72 )ms respectively,F ( 1,4) =19.157,P ＜0.01 ),but not in male.( 2 ) In condition of no pain,the reaction time of male ( (456 ± 59) ms ) was shorter than that of female (504 ± 79ms).However,in the condition of pain,the significant main effect was not found.ConclusionThe reacting time of female was shorter in condition of moderate tourniquet pain,which imply that female showed significant attentional bias towards affective and social-threat words.