Different brain systems support learning from received and avoided pain during human pain-avoidance learning.

ABSTRACT: Both unexpected pain and unexpected pain absence can drive avoidance learning, but whether they do so via shared or separate neural and neurochemical systems is largely unknown. To address this issue, we combined an instrumental pain-avoidance learning task with computational modeling, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and pharmacological manipulations of the dopaminergic (100 mg levodopa) and opioidergic (50 mg naltrexone) systems (N = 83). Computational modeling provided evidence that untreated participants learned more from received than avoided pain. Our dopamine and opioid manipulations negated this learning asymmetry by selectively increasing learning rates for avoided pain. Furthermore, our fMRI analyses revealed that pain prediction errors were encoded in subcort

SUBMITTER: Jepma M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9217130 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature