Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Art In The Stages Of Suffering And Death, Joanna Aramini

Visual Arts Department Student Scholarship

There has always been a strong link between art and the study of science and medicine, and one of the most iconic images of suffering and death in history to date is Christ suffering on the cross. In this thesis, I examine if and how art can make it possible to transcend human pain and overcome suffering, especially in our modern society where pain is seen as something we cannot deal with, and where we look to medicine and prescriptions to diminish it. I argue that art in the states of suffering and death, closely examining Michelangelo’s La Pieta and …

Neural Mechanisms Of The Rejection-Aggression Link, David S. Chester, Donald R. Lynam, Richard Milich, C. Nathan Dewall

Psychology Faculty Publications

Social rejection is a painful event that often increases aggression. However, the neural mechanisms of this rejection–aggression link remain unclear. A potential clue may be that rejected people often recruit the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex’s (VLPFC) self-regulatory processes to manage the pain of rejection. Using functional MRI, we replicated previous links between rejection and activity in the brain’s mentalizing network, social pain network and VLPFC. VLPFC recruitment during rejection was associated with greater activity in the brain’s reward network (i.e. the ventral striatum) when individuals were given an opportunity to retaliate. This retaliation-related striatal response was associated with greater levels of …

Early Procedural Pain Is Associated With Regionally-Specific Alterations In Thalamic Development In Preterm Neonates., Emma G Duerden, Ruth E Grunau, Ting Guo, Justin Foong, Alexander Pearson, Stephanie Au-Young, Raphael Lavoie, M Mallar Chakravarty, Vann Chau, Anne Synnes, Steven P Miller

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Very preterm human neonates are exposed to numerous invasive procedures as part of life-saving care. Evidence suggests that repetitive neonatal procedural pain precedes long-term alterations in brain development. However, to date the link between pain and brain development has limited temporal and anatomic specificity. We hypothesized that early exposure to painful stimuli during a period of rapid brain development, before pain modulatory systems reach maturity, will predict pronounced changes in thalamic development, and thereby cognitive and motor function. In a prospective cohort study, 155 very preterm neonates (82 males, 73 females) born 24-32 weeks' gestation underwent two MRIs at median …

Emotion Regulation And Positive Affect In The Context Of Salivary Alpha-Amylase Response To Pain In Children With Cancer, Brooke N. Jenkins, Douglas A. Granger, Ryan J. Roemer, Ariana Martinez, Tara K. Torres, Michelle A. Fortier

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Children with cancer routinely undergo painful medical procedures invoking strong physiological stress responses. Resilience to this pain may be conferred through resources such as emotion regulation strategies and positive affect.

Procedure

This study measured dispositional positive affect in children with cancer (N = 73) and randomly assigned participants to one of three emotion regulation strategy conditions (distraction, reappraisal, or reassurance). Children applied their assigned strategy during an experimental pain procedure (the cold pressor task [CPT]) and provided saliva samples before, immediately after, and 15 min after the CPT. Saliva samples were later assayed for salivary alpha amylase (sAA)—a surrogate …

The Impact Of Neonatal Pain And Reduced Maternal Care On Brain And Behavioral Development, Sean Michael Mooney-Leber

Wayne State University Dissertations

In the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) preterm infants are exposed to a multitude of stressors, which include both neonatal pain and reduced maternal care. Clinical and preclinical research has demonstrated that exposure to neonatal pain and reduced maternal care has a profound negative impact on brain and behavioral development. Currently, the biological mechanism by which both of these stressors impacts brain and behavioral outcomes remains widely unknown. To uncover a potential biological mechanism, the current dissertation project utilized a preclinical model of repetitive needle pokes and developed a novel model of reduced maternal care through tea-ball encapsulation. Briefly, rat …

Laughter Frequency, Pain Perception, And Affect In Fibromyalgia Patients, Deidre Gayl Molchan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), a common chronic pain condition, is often incompletely treated by conventional medical therapies. It can cause disability, psychological distress, work-related absenteeism, increased use of healthcare resources, and result in the inability to carry out the tasks of daily living. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to investigate the potential influence of laughter on affect and pain in individuals with FMS. Laughter produces beneficial effects on acute pain and on chronic pain in general and has been found to improve temporary affective states, but there have been no studies testing the effects of laughter on the …