Affective game planning for playing the pain: An experimental framework for testing the analgesic efficacy of market-place mobile games

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of gamified interventions for coping with physical pain. Similar to pain perception, game playing is a subjective experience, and therefore, to design efficacious game-therapies, one may ask whether inter-individual differences in playing preference will predict the analgesic experience. To address this question, we deployed an experimental framework based on psychobiological models of stress, to investigate the relation between subjective appraisal of games, and experimental pain perception in healthy young adults (N=4, 1 male, all 21 years of age). Participants were tested under three conditions: playing their preferred and non-preferred game, and doing a digital working-memory test, while receiving a calibrated heat pain stimulus. In three participants, playing a preferred game was more effective in reducing sensation of pain, compared to the cognitive task. Our results illustrate that qualitative differences in primary game appraisal, and in-game experience of enjoyment, translate to quantitative differences in pain perception. We describe the application of our experimental framework in developing personalized digital medicine for coping with chronic pain.