Trial reportThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2010
Anterior insula integrates information about salience into perceptual decisions about pain.
Trial report in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 225 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
225 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 465 citations in OpenAlex.
- Shared genetic underpinnings of gray matter volume alterations and metabolic traits in major depressive disorder.BMC psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Functional MRI evidence of brain alterations in premenstrual dysphoric disorder: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Central neurobiological effects of physical exercise in individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2020Pooled it
- Functional connectivity mapping of regions associated with self- and other-processing.Human brain mapping · 2015Pooled it
- A meta-analysis of brain mechanisms of placebo analgesia: consistent findings and unanswered questions.Handbook of experimental pharmacology · 2014Pooled it
- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Signal Variability Is Associated With Neuromodulation in Fibromyalgia.Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society · 2023Trial
- Influence of tapentadol and oxycodone on the spinal cord and brain using electrophysiology: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2022Trial
- μ Opioid Antagonist Naltrexone Partially Abolishes the Antidepressant Placebo Effect and Reduces Orbitofrontal Cortex Encoding of Reinforcement.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2021Trial
- Central encoding of the strength of intranasal chemosensory trigeminal stimuli in a human experimental pain setting.Human brain mapping · 2020Trial
- Influence of pain anticipation on brain activity and pain perception in Gulf War Veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain.Psychophysiology · 2019Trial
- Brain activity sustaining the modulation of pain by empathetic comments.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Oxytocin enhances the pain-relieving effects of social support in romantic couples.Human brain mapping · 2019Trial
- Got chocolate? Bilateral prefrontal cortex stimulation augments chocolate consumption.Appetite · 2018Trial
- The modulation effect of longitudinal acupuncture on resting state functional connectivity in knee osteoarthritis patients.Molecular pain · 2015Trial
- Inverted Perceptual Judgment of Nociceptive Stimuli at Threshold Level following Inconsistent Cues.PloS one · 2015Trial
- Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Is Associated with Early Anterior Insula Hyperactivation During Appraisal of Fearful Stimuli in Trauma Survivors with Probable Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Placebo and nocebo effects on pain through the lens of the predictive brain: Neurobiological mechanisms and translational implications.Experimental physiology · 2026Review
- Brain dysconnectivity patterns associated with chronic back pain development.Brain informatics · 2026Article
- Top-down control of the descending pain modulatory system drives multimodal placebo analgesia.Neuron · 2026Article
- Signaling of salience and prediction errors by anterior insula neurons.Biochemical and biophysical research communications · 2026Article
165 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The decision as to whether a sensation is perceived as painful does not only depend on sensory input but also on the significance of the stimulus. Here, we show that the degree to which an impending stimulus is interpreted as threatening biases perceptual decisions about pain and that this bias toward pain manifests before stimulus encounter. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the influence of an experimental manipulation of threat on the perception of laser stimuli as painful. In a near-threshold pain detection paradigm, physically identical stimuli were applied under the participants' assumption that the stimulation is entirely safe (low threat) or potentially harmful (high threat). As hypothesized, significantly more stimuli were rated as painful in the high threat condition. This context-dependent classification of a stimulus as painful was predicted by the prestimulus signal level in the anterior insula, suggesting that this structure integrates information about the significance of a stimulus into the decision about pain. The anticipation of pain increased the prestimulus functional connectivity between the anterior insula and the midcingulate cortex (MCC), a region that was significantly more active during stimulation the more a participant was biased to rate the stimulation as painful under high threat. These findings provide evidence that the anterior insula and MCC as a "salience network" integrate information about the significance of an impending stimulation into perceptual decision-making in the context of pain.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.