Approach and avoidance in chronic musculoskeletal pain: the role of pavlovian-instrumental transfer

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Frauke Nees
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 260164390

This project seeks to determine the role of approach and avoidance and related pavlovian and instrumental conditioning processes involving pavlovian-instrumental transfer in chronic musculoskeletal pain and will examine behavioral, peripheral and central correlates. A special focus will be on differential roles of pain-related (pain relief) versus pain-unrelated (monetary) reward during instrumental and pavlovian conditioning and their interaction. We will test a total of 50 back pain patients and 50 matched healthy controls in a pain-related approach-avoidance task and a pavlovian-instrumental transfer task. We expect patients with chronic back pain to be characterized by reduced appetitive approach and enhanced avoidance as well as by reduced pavlovian and instrumental reward- and pain-relief-related conditioning and reduced approach-related pavlovian-instrumental transfer. Additionally, learning-related aversive prediction error signaling in reward (pain relief) related brain regions is expected to be reduced in chronic back pain.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants