Project Details
Projekt
The Role of the Dopaminergic System in Offset Analgesia
Subject Area
Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 570945682
Offset analgesia is a phenomenon in which a minimal reduction of a painful stimulus leads to disproportionately strong pain relief. It is assumed that this phenomenon reflects the efficiency of descending pain inhibition, which plays a central role in the pathological processes of chronic pain symptoms. Studies have shown that this effect is mainly influenced by processes in the brain and central nervous system. However, the exact mechanisms are not yet fully understood. While other neurotransmitter systems such as the opioid or serotonergic system do not seem to have a significant effect on offset analgesia, the pain relief experienced by offset analgesia could be perceived as a reward and mediated via dopaminergic mechanisms. The overall goal of the project is to investigate the influence of dopamine on offset analgesia in 120 healthy volunteers and 60 people with Parkinson's disease. To achieve this goal, psychophysical tests, pharmacological interventions and functional brain imaging will be used in three studies. The first study will investigate whether haloperidol, a dopamine antagonist, affects offset analgesia in healthy individuals. The second study will analyze whether offset analgesia is impaired in people with Parkinson's disease, both in the presence and absence of pain and medication, compared to healthy controls. The third study will investigate whether unpleasant auditory noises in an offset analgesia-based paradigm elicit brain activations comparable to pain stimuli, particularly in reward-related brain areas. It is expected that dopaminergic, reward-related pain inhibition exerts a significant influence on the offset analgesia phenomenon. The project aims to gain novel insights into the role of the dopaminergic reward system in pain inhibition by analyzing the underlying mechanisms of offset analgesia in an in-depth manner.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
Co-Investigators
Professor Dr. Norbert Brüggemann; Dr. Malte Wöstmann
