1

Physiology & Medicine / Re: Study on MMA fighters attitudes towards physical pain

« on: 26/05/2020 02:28:02 »

Some fighters do covertly use "pharmacological pain management interventions",
e.g.

Some fighters may be masochistic-types who get an endogenous-opioid-high from getting a beating.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-selection_bias

I'm agree, but despite of these pharmacological and self selection biases,  contact sports athletes do develop a higher pain tolerance and effective pain coping strategies under a sportive context. Developing these traits, at least physiologically, may influence cognition in some way according to a 5E enactive pain approach, which points out that  "brain activity influences, … but is in turn influenced by, physical activity taking place in other parts ofthe organism (such as the endocrine and immune systems) ... This includes the way the body is felt, visualized, and positioned."


Colombetti, G. (2017). The embodied and situated nature ofmoods. Philosophia., 45, 1437–1451.

Stilwell, P., & Harman, K. (2019). An enactive approach to pain: beyond the biopsychosocial model. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 18(4), 637-665.

Thornton, C., Sheffield, D., & Baird, A. (2017). A longitudinal exploration of pain tolerance and participation in contact sports. Scandinavian journal of pain, 16(1), 36-44.

2

Physiology & Medicine / Study on MMA fighters attitudes towards physical pain

« on: 25/05/2020 21:10:32 »

Unlike other combat sports, MMA involves a variety of striking and grappling techniques focused in almost every part of the opponent's body, therefore the physical damage dealt and taken by these athletes comes in a wide range of qualities and intensities. High profile MMA fighters develop an outstanding physical pain tolerance and pain coping strategies which gradually modify their attitudes towards physical pain, making them less likely to catastrophize or mishandle pain experiences. Given this context, having a deeper knowledge on fighters attitudes towards physical pain may be useful in developing more effective non-pharmacological pain management interventions. Currently I'm working on my master’s degree thesis proyect which involves MMA fighter's implicit (non-conscious) attitudes toward pain-related concepts which will be examined by using the Implicit Association Test (IAT).

I'd appreciate your comments and suggestions.

Alex