Human ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions enhance the effect of expectations on pain perception.

ABSTRACT: Pain is strongly modulated by expectations and beliefs. Across species, subregions of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) are implicated in a variety of functions germane to pain, predictions, and learning. Human fMRI studies show that VMPFC activity tracks expectations about pain and mediates expectancy effects on pain-related activity in other brain regions. Prior lesion studies suggest that VMPFC may instead play a more general role in generating affective responses to painful stimuli. To test whether VMPFC is required to generate affective responses to pain or is more specifically involved in expectancy-based pain modulation, we studied responses to heat stimuli in five adults with bilateral surgical lesions of VMPFC and twenty healthy adults without brain damage. All participants u

SUBMITTER: Motzkin JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10528632 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature