This video was selected as part of the scientific popularization competition “Highlight on the next generation 2020” organized by the QPRN. In this video, students from the Quebec Network of Junior Pain Investigators (QNJPI) present their research project.
You are quietly tidying up in your home while letting your mind wander. When suddenly your little toe meets the corner of the table leg. AOUCH! A sharp and then invasive pain runs through your foot and back up into your leg. Once you’ve recovered from this pain, you can’t remember what you were thinking just before the shock. Well, this is the phenomenon I am studying. I’m interested in the impact of pain on our attention and memory. When we hurt ourselves, pain immediately grabs our attention to warn us of a potential danger. So our line of thought is interrupted, we were distracted. In my research project I record brain activity while my participants do a computer exercise that requires a lot of their attention. Randomly they receive painful stimuli on the hand. I then look to see if the painful stimuli have distracted them and how the brain reacts. So I hope to get a better understanding of the brain mechanisms that make pain so distracting and how it could be made less invasive.
