Investigating the role of rumination on reward and punishment processing in an operant conditioning task using event-related potentials

Pain catastrophizing, and specifically rumination, are key components of the pain experience and a potential predictor of chronic pain. Pain trajectories in chronic pain patients can be influenced by operant conditioning paradigms, with limited knowledge of the mechanisms. Rumination and its impact on event-related potentials (ERPs) in a painful operant conditioning setting, may further elucidate how behavioral and cognitive manipulation can affect somatosensory and nociceptive processing. This study aimed to examine the impact of rumination on ERP responses to auditory feedback cues in a painful operant conditioning paradigm. 29 healthy volunteers initially completed the pain catastrophizing questionnaire followed by a cognitive task. Participants were divided into high- and low-ruminators based on the median split. Negative reinforcement (NR) and positive punishment (PP) were employed as operant conditioning paradigms, using pressure pain as the conditioning stimulus, with correct and incorrect responses resulting in pain relief/no change in pain or no change in pain/increased pain. Electroencephalographic, auditory-feedback ERP P3N3 amplitude and P300 latencies were analyzed. The group with higher rumination scores exhibited lower P3N3 amplitudes compared to the group with lower rumination scores and in response to the auditory feedback on incorrect compared to correct answers. Delayed P300 latencies were found in feedback to incorrect answers in both conditions, but unrelated to rumination. These findings suggest that individuals with higher rumination may struggle to process performance outcomes in an operant conditioning paradigm. Future studies may explore if modulation of rumination has an impact on cognitive performance and pain intensity to a painful condition.