The mechanisms underlying the formation, updating, and generalization of expectations and their effect on pain (A01)

• Subject Area: Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 422744262

Project A01 has substantially advanced our understanding of the neural and neurochemical mechanisms and temporal profiles of how treatment expectations evolve and persist. In the 2nd funding period, A01 will (i) investigate the role of the noradrenergic system in detecting change in treatment outcome and how this relates to the interplay of brainstem-thalamo-cortical pathways; (ii) test whether and how the engagement of top-down pain modulation interferes with affective processing, and (iii) investigate how experimentally induced expectation effects can predict longer-term expectation and treatment trajectories in patients with chronic primary pain.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 289: Treatment Expectation - The impact of expectation on health outcome
• Applicant Institution: Universität Duisburg-Essen
• Project Head: Professorin Dr. Ulrike Bingel