The Neurobiology of Expectancy and Pain Perception

Mass General Brigham

Status: Completed

Conditions: Pain

Treatments: Device: Heat pain applied using TSA or CHEPS

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01575106

2011P000663

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will use using fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to elucidate how contextual learning/expectation relieves or aggravates pain experience in the same cohort of subjects and the same study session.

Enrollment: 38 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21 to 50 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• a) Healthy male and female adults aged 21-50
• b) No contraindications to fMRI scanning
• c) Right handed

Exclusion criteria

• a) Current or past history of major medical, neurological, or psychiatric illness
• b) Pregnancy or breast feeding, menopause, and irregular menstrual cycles (length of cycle must be within 26 to 32 days)
• c) Claustrophobia
• d) History of head trauma
• e) History of impaired elimination
• f) Instability of responses to experimental pain (see Study Procedures Section)
• g) Use of psychotropic drugs, hormone treatments (including hormonal birth control) within 1 year
• h) Non-fluent speaker of English

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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38 participants in 1 patient group

Arm 1

Experimental group

Description:

There is only one cohort in this study. All subjects receive the same intervention, the application of heat pain using TSA or CHEPS.

Treatment:

Device: Heat pain applied using TSA or CHEPS