Acute pain impairs sustained attention.

Pain affects the lives of many individuals by creating physical, psychological, and economic burdens. A critical psychological factor negatively affected pain is one's ability to sustain attention. In order better understand effect on sustained attention we conducted three experiments utilizing psychomotor vigilance task, thought probes, pupillometry. Experiment 1, participants in acute exhibited overall poorer task performance. However, this was localized relative frequency duration participants' slowest responses with their faster being equivalent a no-pain control group. 2, replicated procedure included periodic probes overtly measure subjective experiences during task. Participants reported fewer on-task thoughts more directed toward source pain. 3, while simultaneously tracking pupillary dynamics using an eye-tracker. had smaller task-evoked responses, which be indicator engagement. behavioral effects from Experiments 1 2 were not 3. Taken together, led performance form increase extremeness slow increases off-task thoughts, reductions physiological These data speak theories how competes goals for impacts behavior. The broader implications work are identification low-level mechanism can interfere normal cognitive functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).