Objective: The present study aimed to determine the psychological factors that modulate pain perception experienced when a loved one is nearby. Design: This is a within-subjects study design involving two conditions: alone and in the presence of a loved one. Materials and methods: Seventeen right handed female volunteers (mean age: 20.59; SD: 2.85) were recruited. All volunteers were given two sets of questionnaires: (1) Experiences Close Relationship-Relationship Structure (ECR-RS) to assess their attachment types (secure, dismissing, fearful and preoccupied) with respect to 4 accompanying loved ones (parents, sibling, best friend and romantic partner); and (2) Personality Inventory (USMaP-i) to test personality traits in five dimensions: Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, and Openness. Only candidates with 'preoccupied' attachment type were asked to accompany the volunteers during the experiment. Pain threshold was determined by giving volunteers pain stimuli over the dorsum of the right hand using Th:YAG laser with the energies gradually increased until they felt pain. Results: Results from this study revealed that increased pain threshold was seen in those accompanied by their romantic partners and positively correlated with Extraversion type of personality. Conclusion: There is variation in individual responses to pain when a loved one is present which could be dependent on the personality type, current emotions, and type of relationship between the person and the accompanying loved one. � 2019 Japan Health Sciences University & Japan International Cultural Exchange Foundation.

This study is to model the connectivity between activated areas in the brain associated with pain responses in the presence and absence of a loved one. We used Th:YAG laser targeted onto the dorsum of the right hand of 17 Malay-female participants (mean age 20.59; SD 2.85 years) in two conditions: (1) in the absence of a loved one in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) room (Alone condition), and (2) in the presence of a loved one (Support condition). The laser-induced pain stimuli were delivered according to an fMRI paradigm utilising blocked design comprising 15 blocks of activity and 15 blocks of rest. Brain activations and connectivity were analysed using statistical parametric mapping (SPM), dynamic causal modelling (DCM) and Bayesian model selection (BMS) analyses. Individual responses to pain were found to be divided into two categories: (1) Love Hurts (participants who reported more pain in the presence of a loved one) involved activations in thalamus (THA), parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) and hippocampus (HIP); and (2) Love Heals (participants who reported less pain in the presence of a loved one) involved activations in all parts of cingulate cortex. BMS showed that Love Heals could be represented by a cortical network involving the area of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), middle cingulate cortex (MCC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in the intrinsic connectivity of ACC ? PCC ? MCC and ACC ? MCC. There was no optimal model to explain the increase in pain threshold when accompanied by the loved one in Love Hurts. The present study reveals a new possible cortical network for the reduction of pain by having a loved one nearby.