A Comparison of the Selective Attention between Musculoskeletal Patients and Healthy Individuals

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience. As a mental experience it can provoke different expressions and emotional disorders. Drawing attention toward painful stimuli is regarded as one of the significant features of feeling pain. The main objective of this research was to study selective attention in patients with muscular-skeletal complaints and healthy individuals. In so doing, Fifty patients were selected from two hospitals of Imam Khomeini and Atieh in the city of Tehran through availability sampling method and then they were matched with 50 healthy individuals in terms of demographical point of view. The Dot-probe Software Task was administered to both groups. MANOVA findings suggested a significant difference in the selective attention between musculoskeletal patients and healthy individuals. Furthermore, both groups displayed significant differences in focusing attention on painful congruent and incongruent stimuli, non-painful congruent and incongruent stimuli, and lack attention