Responding to social cues: An experimental paradigm exploring the link between context sensitivity and pain.

These findings highlight a link between sensitivity to the social context and the severity of a pain problem. We showed that individuals with greater problem severity were less sensitive to social cues in their emotional responses, as compared to individuals with less pain-related problems. As predicted, context-insensitive responding appears to be most strongly associated with pain-related problems when dealing with negative emotions. Although the cross-sectional nature of the study prohibits causal conclusions, our findings demonstrate a link and future research is clearly needed to unravel the role of context sensitivity in the development of pain over time. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Responding to social cues seems to be important for adaptation to pain. The term context sensitivity refers to whether a response is in tune with the provided social cue. To date, we know little about how well patients with persistent pain respond emotionally to changes in the social context, that is, how context (in)sensitive they are and if this is linked to problem severity. What does this study add? A test of a method for determining levels of context sensitivity in individuals with persistent pain. Information about to what extent individuals with chronic pain respond context sensitively. Knowledge on the link between social context sensitivity and level of pain problems.