Van Ryckeghem DML, et al. - Researchers performed an experimental investigation to assess task interference and distraction efficacy in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and a matched healthy control group. They made 49 patients with FM and 49 healthy volunteers to perform as quickly as possible (1) a visual localization task in the presence of nonpainful vibrating or painful electric somatic stimuli, and (2) a somatosensory localization task (using nonpainful or painful stimuli). Both patients with FM and healthy individuals showed that pain interfered with performance of the visual task. Participants experienced the pain stimulus as less intense when directing attention away from the pain than when focusing on the pain. FM patients displayed slower task performance compared with the task performance in the healthy control group. Results do not support an altered attentional processing of pain in patients with FM.