Cognitive exertion affects the appraisal of one's own and other people's pain

Abstract

Correctly evaluating others pain is a crucial prosocial ability, especially relevant for the healthcare system. In clinical settings, caregivers assess their patients pain under high workload and fatigue, often while dealing with competing information/tasks. However, the effect played by such cognitive strain in the appraisal of others pain remains unclear. Following embodied accounts that posit a shared representational code between self and others states, it could be hypothesized that the representation of peoples pain might be influenced by cognitive exertion similarly to first-hand experiences. Fifty participants underwent one of two demanding tasks, involving either working memory (Experiment 1: N-Back task) or cognitive interference (Experiment 2: Stroop task). After each task, participants were exposed to painful laser stimulations at three intensity levels (low, medium, high), or video-clips of patients experiencing three intensity levels of pain (low, medium, high). Participants rated the intensity of each pain event on a visual analogue scale. We found that the two tasks influenced rating of both ones own and others pain, by decreasing the sensitivity to medium and high events. This was observed either when comparing the demanding condition to a control (Stroop), or when modelling linearly the difficulty/performance of each depleting task (N-Back). We provide converging evidence that cognitive exertion affects the subsequent appraisal of ones own and likewise others pain. Healthcare personnel should be aware that high workload might alter their cognitive abilities. Perspectivethis research shows that cognitive effort aftereffects impact negatively the assessment of of medium/high pain in others, reminiscently to what was observed in first-hand experiences. Healthcare professionals should be aware that high workload and severe cognitive fatigue could affect their diagnostic skills.