Pain in healthy participants
Conditions
Interventions
Group 1: Healthy participants that receive thermal pain stimuli in low, medium and high intensities during three experimental conditions (within-design):
a) controllable and predictable pain
b) unco
Sponsors
Insitut für Systemische Neurowissenschaften,Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 60 Years
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: MRI-safety criteria
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: pregnant or nursing, acute or chronic pain, skin injury on arm, acute or chronic somatic or psychiatric illness (based on self-disclosure or professional examination), regular medication intake (except for allergy or thyroid medication, contraceptive medication, occasional use of pain medication), intake of painkillers in the 24 hours preceding the study appointment, symptoms of respiratory illness, contact with a Covid-19 case in the last 14 days
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| The present study aims to explore how subjective controllability and expectations affect acute pain perception in healthy subjects. It will examine the extent to which brain activity differs between a) controllable and predictable, b) non-controllable and predictable, and c) non-controllable, non-predictable painful thermal heat stimuli in healthy subjects. Each of the subjects completes all three conditions of the experiment (a-c) in the MRI scanner. The parameters that will be measured with respect to the study goal are the functional brain activation data (fMRI, blood-oxygen-level-dependent response) in the whole brain during the application of thermal pain stimuli, in the above conditions. Additionally, subjective pain ratings will be recorded on a visual analog scale. The analysis will primarily focus on differences in functional brain activation in pain, expectation and controllability related brain areas and subjective pain ratings between conditions. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Exploratory analysis: Computational models to better explain the cognitive mechanisms behind pain ratings of the participants, skin conductance responses, influence of anxiety before experiment, individual differences in controllability sensitivity and locus of control (external vs. internal) as measured with questionnaires. Analysis of fMRI data on single trial basis. | — |
Countries
Germany
Outcome results
None listed