Determination of stimulation intensities
’, pain
HEAT
Participants’ heat pain threshold and heat pain tolerance were assessed using the method of limits three times prior to the wheel of fortune game. The temperature of the thermode increased from baseline with 1 °C/s. Participants were instructed to press the left button of a three-button computer mouse when the pain threshold was reached. The respective temperature was recorded while the temperature further increased. Participants were instructed to press the button again when the pain tolerance threshold was reached. The respective temperature was recorded and the temperature immediately returned to baseline. The arithmetic mean of the temperatures corresponding to the recorded pain threshold and tolerance in the three trials was used as an estimate of the individual heat pain threshold and heat pain tolerance, respectively.After this threshold and tolerance assessment, an adjustment procedure resembling a staircase method was implemented to determine the stimulation intensities in the wheel of fortune game. Participants received heat stimuli of 20 s duration and continuously rated the perceived intensity of these stimuli on a computerized visual analogue scale (VAS) ranging from ‘no sensation’ (0) over ‘just painful’ (100) to ‘most intense pain tolerable’ (200) (