711: The Attuned Body and the Memory of Pain: Insights from Dancers

Topic: Experimental (Non-clinical) Human Studies
Subtopic: Non -specific to any diagnosis, Psychology, Assessment and Measurement of Pain/Nociception, Pain mechanisms (e.g. descending inhibitory control, placebo, inflammation)

Background and Aims: Pain memories are not mere reproductions of past sensations but reconstructions shaped by how bodily and emotional signals are perceived and regulated. Interoceptive processes may therefore play a crucial role in how painful experiences are encoded and recalled. Dancers, through years of training that demand continuous attention to internal states and precise motor control, represent a valuable model for investigating the relationship between interoception, pain, and memory. This study examined whether individuals with dance training differ from non-dancers in interoceptive abilities, pain perception, and recall of a previous painful episode.

Methods: Seventy-four participants (26 dancers, 48 non-dancers) completed the heartbeat detection task (interoceptive accuracy), the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA), and the Cold Pressor Test (CPT) to induce pain. During the CPT, participants rated the peak pain intensity they experienced using a visual analogue scale (VAS) anchored at "no pain" and "maximum pain." Two weeks later, participants were asked to recall that same peak moment and provide a pain intensity rating on an equivalent VAS, with instructions explicitly directing them to the most intense phase of the earlier experience. Data collection is ongoing.

Results: Preliminary analyses revealed that dancers exhibited higher interoceptive sensitivity in the MAIA subscales Noticing (p = 0.002), Attentional Regulation (p < 0.001), Emotional Awareness (p = 0.005), and Self-Regulation (p < 0.001), but no differences in pain sensitivity or interoceptive accuracy compared to non-dancers. Within the dancer group, higher Self-Regulation was associated with a smaller discrepancy between remembered and experienced pain in the CPT (rs = –0.522, p = 0.022), suggesting that individuals with better interoceptive regulation maintain more consistent representations of pain over time.

Conclusions: These findings indicate that the way pain is experienced and remembered depends not only on sensory intensity but also on interoceptive and regulatory capacities. Dancers’ enhanced awareness and regulation of internal states appear to foster a more stable and coherent memory of pain, suggesting that body awareness training may influence how aversive experiences are processed and retained.

References: Christensen, J. F., Gaigg, S. B., & Calvo-Merino, B. (2018). I can feel my heartbeat: Dancers have increased interoceptive accuracy. Psychophysiology, 55(4), e13008. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13008
Garfinkel, S., & Eccleston, C. (2025). Interoception and pain: Body–mind integration, rupture, and repair. PAIN, 166(7), 1470–1474. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003515
Gentsch, A., & Kuehn, E. (2022). Clinical manifestations of body memories: The impact of past bodily experiences on mental health. Brain Sciences, 12(5), 594. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12050594

Presenting Author: Mariana Agostinho
Submitting Author: Mariana Agostinho

Senior Author: Rita Canaipa

IASP 2026 Global Year theme of Neuropathic Pain: No

• Einav Gozansky: PhD - Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
• Madalena Gomes: Master student - Faculty of Health Sciences and Nursing, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisboa, Portugal
• Margarida Valente: Master student - Faculty of Health Sciences and Nursing, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisboa, Portugal
• Margarida Soares: MSc - Faculty of Health Sciences and Nursing, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisboa, Portugal
• Clara Inácio: MSc - Faculty of Health Sciences and Nursing, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisboa, Portugal
• Rita Canaipa: PhD - Faculty of Health Sciences and Nursing, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisboa, Portugal; CIIS, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Health, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisboa, Portugal