The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of acute pain on performance of a manual
dexterity task completed alone or a combination with a demanding cognitive task. Performance of
the manual dexterity task was measured as the time to complete a grooved pegboard task and the
times to manipulate each peg during the selection, transport, insertion, and return phases. Twentytwo
young adults (24.1 ± 2.0 years) went through a crossover design, where every participant
underwent each condition in a randomized order. The grooved pegboard task was used to evaluate
whether simultaneously providing; nothing (Peg), pain (PegPain), a cognitive interference task
(PegSub), or a combination of both (PegPainSub) would affect pegboard performance. The cognitive
task consisted of continuous subtractions of seven. No differences in pegboard completion time
between Peg and PegPain was found. A longer completion time for PegSub and PegPainSub was
found compared to Peg and PegPain. PegPainSub had longer pegboard completion times compared
to PegSub. This was accounted primary by a longer selection phase duration for PegPainSub
compared to PegSub. The results suggest pain had an interfered effect in completion time in a
combination with the cognitive interference task compared to no pain. Furthermore, these results
revealed that acute pain reduced performance on a manual dexterity task only in a combination
with a cognitive task.