How expectations shape pain.

Between Pain and Math – How Expectations Shape Cognitive Processes from Neural Activity To Behaviour

The subjective experience of pain: where expectations become reality.

Our subjective sensory experiences are thought to be heavily shaped by interactions between expectations and incoming sensory information. However, the neural mechanisms supporting these interactions remain poorly understood. By using combined psychophysical and functional MRI techniques, brain activation related to the intensity of expected pain and experienced pain was characterized. As the m...

Viewing a needle pricking a hand that you perceive as yours enhances unpleasantness of pain.

"Don't look and it won't hurt" is commonly heard advice when receiving an injection, which implies that observing needle pricks enhances pain perception. Throughout our lives, we repeatedly learn that sharp objects cause pain when penetrating our skin, but situational expectations, like information given by the clinician prior to an injection, may also influence how viewing needle pricks affect...

Expectations and anxiety as mediators of placebo effects in pain

In this issue of Pain, Vase et al. provide evidence for some of the largest placebo effects yet reported in an experimental study. Testing patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), they compared the effects of natural history (N), lidocaine (L) and placebo (P), administered on separate days, on pain induced by a rectal balloon. They found that with P, pain ratings were (surprisingly!) as lo...

Frontal-Brainstem Pathways Mediating Placebo Effects on Social Rejection.

Placebo treatments can strongly affect clinical outcomes, but research on how they shape other life experiences and emotional well-being is in its infancy. We used fMRI in humans to examine placebo effects on a particularly impactful life experience, social pain elicited by a recent romantic rejection. We compared these effects with placebo effects on physical (heat) pain, which are thought to ...