Pain, Learning, and Nocebo

Antibiotic medication that augments the function of NMDA-receptors

During nocebo acquisition trials, the conditioned stimulus (i.e., activation of a sham electrode that can increase pain sensitivity, is paired to unconditioned high-pain stimuli (nocebo trials). During control trials of the acquisition phase, moderate-pain stimuli are paired to no sham electrode activation.

During nocebo extinction, moderate pain stimulations are administered both after the administration of the conditioned stimulus (i.e., activation of the sham electrode) and the control stimulus (no activation of the sham electrode), in order to evoke nocebo responses to the sham hyperalgesic procedure.

In both arms of the study, BOLD response data will be collected with fMRI during the acquisition and extinction of nocebo effects on pain.

Placebo control in oral form