Attachment style moderates partner presence effects on pain: a laser-evoked potentials study
Open accessAbstract
Social support is crucial for psychological and physical well-being. Yet, in experimental and clinical pain research, the presence of others has been found to both attenuate and intensify pain. To investigate the factors underlying these mixed effects, we administered noxious laser stimuli to 39 healthy women while their romantic partner was present or absent, and measured pain ratings and laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) to assess the effects of partner presence on subjective pain experience and underlying neural processes. Further, we examined whether individual differences in adult attachment style (AAS), alone or in interaction with the partner's level of attentional focus (manipulated to be either on or away from the participant) might modulate these effects. We found that the effects of partner presence vs absence on pain-related measures depended on AAS but not partner attentional focus. The higher participants' attachment avoidance, the higher pain ratings and N2 and P2 local peak amplitudes were in the presence compared with the absence of the romantic partner. As LEPs are thought to reflect activity relating to the salience of events, our data suggest that partner presence may influence the perceived salience of events threatening the body, particularly in individuals who tend to mistrust others.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
LEPs reflect temporally distinct cortical processes specifically evoked by the activation of Aδ-fibres and are differentially modulated by cognitive and pharmacological interventions.
“LEPs reflect temporally distinct cortical processes specifically evoked by the activation of Aδ‐fibres 31 and are differentially modulated by cognitive 32, 33, 34 and pharmacological 35 interventions.”
From The Analgesic Effect of Oxytocin in Humans: A Double‐Blind, Placebo‐Controlled Cross‐Over Study Using Laser‐Evoked Potentials (2016) · cites this paper as [34]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (1983) · Cited by 79,888 · see citing works
(1969) · Cited by 18,340 · see citing works
(2007) · Cited by 10,092 · see citing works
Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process.
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. R. (1987) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.52.3.511 · Cited by 8,783 · see citing works
Attachment and Loss. Vol. 1. Attachment
Rever, G. W. (1972) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/00006842-197211000-00011 · Cited by 8,446 · see citing works
How do you feel — now? The anterior insula and human awareness
(Bud) Craig, A. D. (2009) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn2555 · Cited by 6,657 · see citing works
Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process.
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.3.511 · Cited by 6,247 · see citing works
How do you feel? Interoception: The sense of the physiological condition of the body
Craig, A. D. (2002) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn894 · Cited by 6,006 · see citing works
(2005) · Cited by 5,977 · see citing works
Handbook of attachment: theory, research, and clinical applications
(1999) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.37-1841 · Cited by 5,386 · see citing works
Attachment and Loss. Vol. I. Attachment.
Jones, N. B., & Bowlby, J. (1970) · Man · doi:10.2307/2798963 · Cited by 4,201 · see citing works
Handbook of attachment: theory, research, and clinical applications
(2009) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.46-4135 · Cited by 3,818 · see citing works
An Item-Response Theory Analysis of Self-Report Measures of Adult Attachment
Fraley, R. C., Waller, N. G., & Brennan, K. A. (2000) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.350 · Cited by 3,385 · see citing works
Uchino, B. N. (2006) · Journal of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1007/s10865-006-9056-5 · Cited by 2,507 · see citing works
Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P. R., & Pereg, D. (2003) · Motivation and Emotion · doi:10.1023/a:1024515519160 · Cited by 1,788 · see citing works
Gueorguieva, R., & Krystal, J. H. (2004) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.61.3.310 · Cited by 1,529 · see citing works
A Practical Guide to Calculating Cohen’s f2, a Measure of Local Effect Size, from PROC MIXED
Selya, A. S., Rose, J. S., Dierker, L. C., Hedeker, D., & Mermelstein, R. J. (2012) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00111 · Cited by 1,297 · see citing works
Attachment-related psychodynamics
Shaver, P. R., & Mikulincer, M. (2002) · Attachment & Human Development · doi:10.1080/14616730210154171 · Cited by 1,294 · see citing works
Attachment Security in Infancy and Early Adulthood: A Twenty-Year Longitudinal Study
Waters, E., Merrick, S., Treboux, D., Crowell, J., & Albersheim, L. (2000) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00176 · Cited by 1,228 · see citing works
Lending a Hand: Social Regulation of the Neural Response to Threat
Coan, J. A., Schaefer, H. S., & Davidson, R. J. (2006) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01832.x · Cited by 1,218 · see citing works
Legrain, V., Iannetti, G. D., Plaghki, L., & Mouraux, A. (2011) · Progress in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2010.10.005 · Cited by 854 · see citing works
Collins, N. L., & Feeney, B. C. (2004) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.87.3.363 · Cited by 736 · see citing works
Social buffering: relief from stress and anxiety
Kikusui, T., Winslow, J. T., & Mori, Y. (2006) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2006.1941 · Cited by 635 · see citing works
Brain generators of laser-evoked potentials: from dipoles to functional significance
Garcia-Larrea, L., Frot, M., & Valeriani, M. (2003) · Neurophysiologie Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology · doi:10.1016/j.neucli.2003.10.008 · Cited by 541 · see citing works
Attachment figures activate a safety signal-related neural region and reduce pain experience
Eisenberger, N. I., Master, S. L., Inagaki, T. K., Taylor, S. E., Shirinyan, D., Lieberman, M. D., & Naliboff, B. D. (2011) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1108239108 · Cited by 471 · see citing works
Anterior insula integrates information about salience into perceptual decisions about pain
Wiech, K., Lin, C.-S., Brodersen, K. H., Bingel, U., Ploner, M., & Tracey, I. (2010) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.2087-10.2010 · Cited by 470 · see citing works
The effects of electrode impedance on data quality and statistical significance in ERP recordings
Kappenman, E. S., & Luck, S. J. (2010) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2010.01009.x · Cited by 454 · see citing works
Nerve fibre discharges, cerebral potentials and sensations induced by CO2 laser stimulation.
Bromm, B., & Treede, R. (1984) · PubMed · Cited by 409 · see citing works
Determinants of Laser-Evoked EEG Responses: Pain Perception or Stimulus Saliency?
Iannetti, G. D., Hughes, N. P., Lee, M., & Mouraux, A. (2008) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00097.2008 · Cited by 400 · see citing works
Clinical usefulness of laser-evoked potentials
Treede, R., Lorenz, J., & Baumgärtner, U. (2003) · Neurophysiologie Clinique · doi:10.1016/j.neucli.2003.10.009 · Cited by 388 · see citing works
Nociceptive Laser-Evoked Brain Potentials Do Not Reflect Nociceptive-Specific Neural Activity
Mouraux, A., & Iannetti, G. D. (2009) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.91181.2008 · Cited by 373 · see citing works
Adult Attachment Styles, Perceived Social Support and Coping Strategies
Ognibene, T. C., & Collins, N. L. (1998) · Journal of Social and Personal Relationships · doi:10.1177/0265407598153002 · Cited by 360 · see citing works
Ten ironic rules for non-statistical reviewers
Friston, K. J. (2012) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.04.018 · Cited by 347 · see citing works
Younger, J., Aron, A., Parke, S., Chatterjee, N., & Mackey, S. (2010) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013309 · Cited by 314 · see citing works
Social Support and Experimental Pain
Brown, J. L., Sheffield, D., Leary, M. R., & Robinson, M. E. (2003) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/01.psy.0000030388.62434.46 · Cited by 299 · see citing works
Meredith, P. J., Ownsworth, T., & Strong, J. (2007) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2007.07.009 · Cited by 265 · see citing works
The Social Modulation of Pain: Others as Predictive Signals of Salience – a Systematic Review
Krahé, C., Springer, A., Weinman, J. A., & Fotopoulou, A. (2013) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00386 · Cited by 245 · see citing works
Self-citationAn Empirical Review of the Neural Underpinnings of Receiving and Giving Social Support
Eisenberger, N. I. (2013) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/psy.0b013e31829de2e7 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Spatial Sensory Organization and Body Representation in Pain Perception
Haggard, P., Iannetti, G. D., & Longo, M. R. (2013) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.01.047 · Cited by 192 · see citing works
Toward a neuroscience of attachment.
Coan, J. A. (2008) · Cited by 192 · see citing works
Ein‐Dor, T., Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2011) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0022503 · Cited by 187 · see citing works
Characterizing the Cortical Activity through Which Pain Emerges from Nociception
Lee, M. C., Mouraux, A., & Iannetti, G. D. (2009) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0014-09.2009 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
Kunde, V., & Treede, R. (1993) · Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology/Evoked Potentials Section · doi:10.1016/0168-5597(93)90052-q · Cited by 154 · see citing works
Morrisj, J. S. (2002) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(02)01946-0 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Valentini, E., Hu, L., Chakrabarti, B., Hu, Y. S., Aglioti, S. M., & Iannetti, G. D. (2011) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.08.069 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
Seeing the pain of others while being in pain: A laser-evoked potentials study
Valeriani, M., Betti, V., Pera, D. L., Armas, L. D., Miliucci, R., Restuccia, D., Avenanti, A., & Aglioti, S. M. (2008) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.12.056 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Multiple—test Procedures and Smile Plots
Newson, R. B., & The ALSPAC Study Team (2003) · The Stata Journal Promoting communications on statistics and Stata · doi:10.1177/1536867x0300300202 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Knowing you care: Effects of perceived empathy and attachment style on pain perception
Sambo, C. F., Howard, M. A., Kopelman, M. D., Williams, S., & Fotopoulou, A. (2010) · Pain · doi:10.1016/j.pain.2010.08.035 · Cited by 113 · see citing works
Self-citationRonga, I., Valentini, E., Mouraux, A., & Iannetti, G. D. (2012) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00464.2012 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Social Support Network Orientation: The Role of Adult Attachment Style
Wallace, J. L., & Vaux, A. (1993) · Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1521/jscp.1993.12.3.354 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
Mere presence is not enough: Responsive support in a virtual world
Kane, H. S., McCall, C., Collins, N. L., & Blascovich, J. (2011) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.07.001 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Bentley, D. E., Derbyshire, S. W. G., Youell, P. D., & Jones, A. K. P. (2003) · Pain · doi:10.1016/s0304-3959(02)00405-0 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Laser‐evoked potentials as a tool for assessing the efficacy of antinociceptive drugs
Truini, A., Panuccio, G., Galeotti, F., Maluccio, M. R., Sartucci, F., Avoli, M., & Cruccu, G. (2010) · European Journal of Pain · doi:10.1016/j.ejpain.2009.05.001 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Social influence and pain response in women and men
McClelland, L. E., & McCubbin, J. A. (2008) · Journal of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1007/s10865-008-9163-6 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Hurter, S., Paloyelis, Y., Williams, A. C. D. C., & Fotopoulou, A. (2014) · Journal of Pain · doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2014.06.004 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Self-citationA pain in her arm: Romantic attachment orientations and the tourniquet task
Wilson, C. L., & Ruben, M. A. (2011) · Personal Relationships · doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2011.01359.x · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Meredith, P. J. (2013) · Current Pain and Headache Reports · doi:10.1007/s11916-013-0326-y · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Differential processing of laser stimuli by Aδ and C fibres in major depression
Terhaar, J., Viola, F. C., Franz, M., Berger, S., Bär, K., & Weiß, T. (2011) · Pain · doi:10.1016/j.pain.2011.03.027 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
The Role of Maternal Attachment in the Experience of Labor Pain
Costa-Martins, J. M., Pereira, M., Martins, H., Moura‐Ramos, M., Coelho, R. C., & Tavares, J. (2014) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/psy.0000000000000040 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Krahé, C., Paloyelis, Y., Sambo, C. F., & Fotopoulou, A. (2014) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01027 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Van Ryckeghem, D. M., Van Damme, S., Eccleston, C., & Crombez, G. (2018) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2017.10.008 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Paloyelis, Y., Krahé, C., Maltezos, S., Williams, S. C., Howard, M. A., & Fotopoulou, A. (2016) · Journal of Neuroendocrinology · doi:10.1111/jne.12347 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Krahé, C., Paloyelis, Y., Condon, H., Jenkinson, P. M., Williams, S. C. R., & Fotopoulou, A.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- University of Hertfordshire (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Krahé, Charlotte
- ORCID
- Venue
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2015-01-01
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1030-1037
- ISSN
- 1749-5016 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-5024
- PMC
- PMC4526477
- OpenAlex
- W2144515269
- Cited by
- 69
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 9.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Hertfordshire Research Archive (University of Hertfordshire) (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- University of Hertfordshire Research Archive (University of Hertfordshire) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Volkswagen Foundation (II/85 069)
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/K009400/1)
- FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (313755)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Keywords
- adult attachment styles, partner presence, pain perception, social support, laser-evoked potentials, attachment avoidance, attentional focus, romantic partners, noxious stimulation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Electroencephalography, Female, Humans, Individuality, Object Attachment, Pain, Pain Measurement, Social Support, Spouses, Trust, Young Adult, Laser-Evoked Potentials
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
