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The following is a summary of “Impaired somatosensory habituation in older adults with chronic pain during an affective oddball task,” published in the September 2024 issue of Pain by Dorado et al.

Chronic pain in older adults can disrupt information processing in attentional, emotional, and somatosensory domains. Still, the interactions between these aspects and their role in vulnerability to chronic pain are not fully understood.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to examine how chronic pain affects attentional aspects of tactile stimulation and the influence of affective context in older adults.

They compared somatosensory evoked potentials in 26 older adults (70.00 ± 5.07 years; 11 males) with chronic pain, 28 pain-free adults (69.57 ± 3.96 years; 13 males), and 27 healthy adults (21.48 ± 1.80 years; 14 males). Participants viewed blocks of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral images from the International Affective Picture System while receiving frequent and deviant tactile stimulation.

The results showed that older adults with chronic pain had higher P50 and N100 amplitudes during frequent stimulation compared to pain-free adults and healthy individuals, and older adults also exhibited higher P300 amplitude during emotional contexts compared to neutral scenarios. During deviant stimulation, older adults with chronic pain had higher P50 and N100 amplitudes but displayed typical age-related flattening during P300.

They concluded chronic pain impairs the ability to habituate to non-painful, irrelevant tactile stimuli, particularly in emotional contexts.

Source: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ejp.4732