Date of Award

2020

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The present set of studies assessed the relation between neural, psychological, and cognitive mechanisms that have been shown to influence the experience of chronic pain. Specifically, Studies One and Two advanced our understanding of chronic pain by illustrating its unique relationship with anxious arousal and frontal neural activity on inhibitory control difficulties. Study Three focuses on targeting how anxious arousal is distinctly associated with neural correlates of inhibitory control in order to provide a framework that can be applied to individuals experiencing chronic pain. Together, these studies aim to inform the development of evidenced-based interventions that target anxious arousal in order to enhance the effectiveness of chronic pain management. Overall, the findings from this set of studies highlighted the cross-sectional relation between EF, psychological symptoms, and neural mechanisms and specifically distinguished the importance of anxious arousal, inhibitory control, and neural mechanisms measured with EEG (i.e., frontal alpha and beta) and ERP (N200, N450, Conflict SP) methodologies.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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