Influence of mindfulness training on attention processing in individuals with chronic pain
Michael Y. Wang, Neil W. Bailey, Paul B. Fitzgerald, Bernadette M. Fitzgibbon
medRxiv May 29, 2025 preprint DOI: 10.1101/2025.05.28.25328533 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 128 |
| Population | Individuals with and without chronic pain, some of whom practice mindfulness |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Chronic pain Training meteorology Clinical psychology Cognitive psychology |
| Key findings | Mindfulness practice is associated with faster reaction times on attention tasks in individuals with chronic pain, and may reduce reliance on external cues for alerting. |
Abstract
Abstract Objective The dynamic impact of chronic pain on attention can lead to impairments in overall cognitive functioning. Mindfulness is a practice often adopted for pain management that includes elements of attention training. It is thought to improve the experiential acceptance of pain, thus reducing pain-sensitivity and pain-related attentional biases. The aim of this study was to examine whether experience with mindfulness is associated with altered attentional functioning in participants with chronic pain.
Methods: We collected an online sample of 128 participants across four groups: 31 individuals with chronic pain who practice mindfulness (Pain-Meditators), 29 individuals with chronic pain who have not practiced mindfulness (PainNon-Meditators), 32 healthy individuals who practice mindfulness, and 36 healthy individuals who do not practice mindfulness. General attentional functioning was measured using the using the Short-Attention Network Task (short-ANT) and attention bias to pain was measured using the Pain Dot-Probe task.
Results: An overall effect in reaction time (RT) was found across both (all p <.05), with post-hoc analyses finding that Pain-Meditators reacted faster on both the short-ANT ( p = 0.014) and dot-probe attention tasks (p = < 0.001) compared to PainNon-meditators. PainNon-meditators showed higher alerting network scores on the short-ANT than all other groups ( p = 0.005), indicating more reliance on cues to alert attention. No differences were found between the pain groups in attentional bias to pain-related words ( p = 0.84).
Conclusion: The results provide evidence that mindfulness practice is associated with altered attention performance in individuals with chronic pain and may mitigate the effects of chronic pain on attention functioning. Our results provide some of the only experimental research to investigate the effects of mindfulness training on attention processing in individuals with chronic pain.