Jorian Blom, MSc

PhD Student

Cubicus-building, room C339

Fax: +31 53 489 4241
Tel: +31 53 489 5230
Email: j.h.g.blom[at]utwente.nl

Website: www.jorianblom.nl

Research

The ability to experience pain is essential for the survival of humans. Pain signals when something is going wrong somewhere on your body or is about to. Action can be taken in response. For example, when you touch a hot pan on a stove, pain perception causes you to retract your hand from that hot pan. Extensive damage could have been caused if you were not able to sense the pain or when your reaction would have been to slow.

The ability to sense pain is therefore a good thing, but it also has drawbacks. This comes in to play when these useful warning signals change to chronic pain. According to Dutch research (TNS NIPO, 2006) almost nine out of ten people in The Netherlands regularly take prescription-free pain-relief medicine. Research also showed (TNS NIPO, 2000) that around one out of six people are being confronted with prolonged (chronic) pain. When pain is chronic it has lost its functionality of being a warning signal, and the quality of life for these people is highly diminished.

But how is this (chronic) pain processed by the brain? By mapping pain processing in the brain we possibly could come up with better pain coping strategies. In our research we induce pain (prickling feeling) by delivering nociceptive electrocutaneous stimuli to healthy, pain-free participants. Apart from measuring only subjective pain perception ratings (VAS or NRS scores) we also measure more objective responses to the induced pain. This is done by analysing pain-evoked potentials (by means of measuring EEG).

Research performed by Blom, Wiering and Van der Lubbe showed that distraction using a mental-arithmetic task or word-association task has an attenuating effect on the processing of electrocutaneous nociceptive stimuli. Effects are found on both the early automatic processing of stimuli, as on late processing which is more related to the task-related processing of stimuli.

Blom and Van der Lubbe recently conducted a second experiment assisted by Braukmann to find out what the effects of spatial attention on pain processing are. Participants received a nociceptive stimulus on either of their two arms within each trial. In 80% of the trials the stimuli were spatially correctly cued by a visual stimulus. It is being expected that spatial distraction, by means of the invalid cue caused attenuated effects on pain processing.

Future research will focus on chronic pain patient groups as well. How do chronic pain patients process experimental induced pain? What are the differences between this group and the pain-free participants group? Does distraction away from painful stimuli cause different effects in this group compared to pain-free participants? Research on this field is in progress and of great importance.

If you are interested in doing your Bachelor or Master thesis in this area, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Education

Design Methodology for Psychology (298301)

Bachelorthesis C&M (293397)

Masterthesis C&M (293496)

Curriculum Vitae

2009 – present PhD student, University of Twente

2008 – 2009 Sales consultant Usability & Psychology, Noldus Information Technology

2006 – 2008 Master Psychology, University of Twente

Thesis: Using fERN as a predictor for learning efficiency

2001 – 2006 Bachelor Business Engineering, Hogeschool van Utrecht

Thesis: L-FIRE: Economic and Logistic feasibility report

Publications

Van der Helden, J., Boksem, M.A.S., & Blom, J.H.G. (2010). The Importance of Failure: Feedback Related Negativity Predicts Motor Learning Efficiency. Cerebral Cortex, 20, 1596-1603.

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<< GW Home Employees CPE Former Employees CPE Research Education Graduation Opportunities Links Contact CPE Sitemap Search	Jorian Blom, MSc Jorian Blom, MSc PhD Student Cubicus-building, room C339 Fax: +31 53 489 4241 Tel: +31 53 489 5230 Email: j.h.g.blom[at]utwente.nl Website: www.jorianblom.nl Research The ability to experience pain is essential for the survival of humans. Pain signals when something is going wrong somewhere on your body or is about to. Action can be taken in response. For example, when you touch a hot pan on a stove, pain perception causes you to retract your hand from that hot pan. Extensive damage could have been caused if you were not able to sense the pain or when your reaction would have been to slow. The ability to sense pain is therefore a good thing, but it also has drawbacks. This comes in to play when these useful warning signals change to chronic pain. According to Dutch research (TNS NIPO, 2006) almost nine out of ten people in The Netherlands regularly take prescription-free pain-relief medicine. Research also showed (TNS NIPO, 2000) that around one out of six people are being confronted with prolonged (chronic) pain. When pain is chronic it has lost its functionality of being a warning signal, and the quality of life for these people is highly diminished. But how is this (chronic) pain processed by the brain? By mapping pain processing in the brain we possibly could come up with better pain coping strategies. In our research we induce pain (prickling feeling) by delivering nociceptive electrocutaneous stimuli to healthy, pain-free participants. Apart from measuring only subjective pain perception ratings (VAS or NRS scores) we also measure more objective responses to the induced pain. This is done by analysing pain-evoked potentials (by means of measuring EEG). Research performed by Blom, Wiering and Van der Lubbe showed that distraction using a mental-arithmetic task or word-association task has an attenuating effect on the processing of electrocutaneous nociceptive stimuli. Effects are found on both the early automatic processing of stimuli, as on late processing which is more related to the task-related processing of stimuli. Blom and Van der Lubbe recently conducted a second experiment assisted by Braukmann to find out what the effects of spatial attention on pain processing are. Participants received a nociceptive stimulus on either of their two arms within each trial. In 80% of the trials the stimuli were spatially correctly cued by a visual stimulus. It is being expected that spatial distraction, by means of the invalid cue caused attenuated effects on pain processing. Future research will focus on chronic pain patient groups as well. How do chronic pain patients process experimental induced pain? What are the differences between this group and the pain-free participants group? Does distraction away from painful stimuli cause different effects in this group compared to pain-free participants? Research on this field is in progress and of great importance. If you are interested in doing your Bachelor or Master thesis in this area, please do not hesitate to contact me. Education Design Methodology for Psychology (298301) Bachelorthesis C&M (293397) Masterthesis C&M (293496) Curriculum Vitae 2009 – present PhD student, University of Twente 2008 – 2009 Sales consultant Usability & Psychology, Noldus Information Technology 2006 – 2008 Master Psychology, University of Twente Thesis: Using fERN as a predictor for learning efficiency 2001 – 2006 Bachelor Business Engineering, Hogeschool van Utrecht Thesis: L-FIRE: Economic and Logistic feasibility report Publications Van der Helden, J., Boksem, M.A.S., & Blom, J.H.G. (2010). The Importance of Failure: Feedback Related Negativity Predicts Motor Learning Efficiency. Cerebral Cortex, 20, 1596-1603.