Distinct brain networks involved in placebo analgesia between individuals with or without prior experience with opioids

ABSTACT

Placebo analgesia is defined as a psychobiological phenomenon triggered by the information surrounding an antalgic drug instead of its inherent pharmacological properties. Placebo analgesia is hypothesized to be formed through either verbal suggestions or conditioning. The present study aims at disentangling the neural correlates of expectations effects with or without conditioning through prior experience using the model of placebo analgesia.

We will address this question by recruiting two groups of individuals holding comparable verbally-induced expectations regarding morphine analgesia but either (i) with or (ii) without prior experience with opioids. We will then contrast the two groups’ neurocognitive response to acute heat-pain induction following the injection of sham morphine using electroencephalography (EEG). Topographic ERP analyses of the N2 and P2 pain evoked potential components will allow to test the hypothesis that placebo analgesia involves distinct neural networks when induced by expectations with or without prior experience.