https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201130131431.htm

These sorts of question were central to the development of a recent study by Morgan Gianola, University of Miami psychology graduate student, along with his advisor, Dr. Elizabeth Losin, director of the Social and Cultural Neuroscience lab at the University of Miami, and Dr. Maria Llabre, professor and associate chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Miami. The study, entitled "Effects of Language Context and Cultural Identity on the Pain Experience of Spanish-English Bilinguals," is published in the journal Affective Science and will appear as part of the journal's special issue on "Language and Affect."

The Social and Cultural Neuroscience lab uses experimental interactions among research participants to assess how social factors, like the language one speaks or the cultural identity they express, can influence pain responses and other clinically relevant behaviors. Gianola joined this lab to research how social environments and cultural learning can be relevant to perceptions as seemingly objective and inherent as pain.