The Effect of Thermal Pain on Working Memory: Behavioral Evidence from the n-Back Task.

Dong Dong, Koichi Hosomi, Nobuhiko Mori, Fanqing Zhou, Haruhiko Kishima, Youichi Saitoh

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Dong DongBrain and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, School of Automation, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 1 Dongxiang Road, Chang'an District, Xi'an 710129, China.

Koichi HosomiDepartment of Neurosurgery, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Osaka, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita 565-0871, Osaka, Japan.

Nobuhiko MoriDepartment of Neurosurgery, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Osaka, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita 565-0871, Osaka, Japan.ORCID 0000-0001-6537-6322

Fanqing ZhouSchool of Business, Xi'an International Studies University, South Wenyuan Road, Chang'an District, Xi'an 710128, China.

Haruhiko KishimaDepartment of Neurosurgery, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Osaka, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita 565-0871, Osaka, Japan.ORCID 0000-0002-9041-2337

Youichi SaitohTokuyukai Rehabilitation Clinic, 2-24-18 Shinsenri Nishimachi, Toyonaka 560-0083, Osaka, Japan.

Funding

Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development JP23dm0307007Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development JP23dm0307008Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP22K09206Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP23K10559Ministry of Education in China Project of Humanities and Social Sciences 19YJC190005

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Pain and working memory interact bidirectionally, yet most paradigms treat pain as an extraneous distractor rather than task-relevant content. This study investigated whether thermal sensations can be encoded and updated in working memory in an n-back paradigm. Nineteen healthy adults completed visual (location) and thermal (temperature) single n-back tasks, cross-modal conditions with task-irrelevant distractors, and a dual n-back task across three load levels (1-, 2-, 3-back). Results showed that thermal cues consistently yielded lower accuracy and longer response times (RTs) compared to visual cues (

Indexed as

cognitive loadn-back taskthermal pain stimulationworking memory

Identifiers

PMID42193580

DOI10.3390/bs16050701

PMCPMC13203932

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.