The relationship between somatic and emotional stimuli: a comparison between adolescents with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and a control group

The results showed that adolescents with TMD pain reported significantly greater sensitivity (p<0.05) to aversive somatic and pleasant somatic stimuli than the controls. The differences between groups for the aversive emotional and pleasant emotional stimuli were non-significant. These findings suggest that chronic TMD pain states in adolescents are accompanied by amplification of bodily, but not purely emotional stimuli and that cognitive systems are implicated, not only an alteration of the nociceptive systems.