ArticleNature neuroscience2014
Representation of aversive prediction errors in the human periaqueductal gray.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 140 papers, 3 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.
Mind-body Treatments for Chronic Back Pain
Pain Avoidance Behavior and Its Relation to Risk for Opioid Use in Chronic Pain Patients
Who cites it
140 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 263 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analytic evidence for distinct neural correlates of conditioned versus verbally induced placebo analgesia.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Placebo Effects on the Neurologic Pain Signature: A Meta-analysis of Individual Participant Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data.JAMA neurology · 2018Pooled it
- A Bayesian model of category-specific emotional brain responses.PLoS computational biology · 2015Pooled it
- Open-Label Placebo Injection for Chronic Back Pain With Functional Neuroimaging: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Enhancing treatment of osteoarthritis knee pain by boosting expectancy: A functional neuroimaging study.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2018Trial
- Endogenous opioids regulate social threat learning in humans.Nature communications · 2017Trial
- Active Avoidance: Neural Mechanisms and Attenuation of Pavlovian Conditioned Responding.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2017Trial
- Frontal-Brainstem Pathways Mediating Placebo Effects on Social Rejection.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2017Trial
- Encoding of mechanical nociception differs in the adult and infant brain.Scientific reports · 2016Trial
- Modality-specific reactive and predictive responses in the human superior colliculus.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Mechanisms Underlying Pain Avoidance in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Observational
- Temporal Interference Stimulation of the Motor Cortex Produces Frequency-Dependent Analgesia.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Temporal predictions shape somatosensory perception.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The Periaqueductal Gray Selectively Supports Reversal Learning During a Flexible Discrimination Task in Mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- MASSAG model: Towards an integrative neuroscience framework linking emotional trauma, pain, and mechanisms of force-based manipulations.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026Review
- Prediction error coding as the computational basis for nocifensive and nocifensive-like behaviors.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
- Controllability changes pain perception by increasing the precision of expectations.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Dynamic learning of the meaning of information changes pain perception.Scientific reports · 2025Article
80 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Pain is a primary driver of learning and motivated action. It is also a target of learning, as nociceptive brain responses are shaped by learning processes. We combined an instrumental pain avoidance task with an axiomatic approach to assessing fMRI signals related to prediction errors (PEs), which drive reinforcement-based learning. We found that pain PEs were encoded in the periaqueductal gray (PAG), a structure important for pain control and learning in animal models. Axiomatic tests combined with dynamic causal modeling suggested that ventromedial prefrontal cortex, supported by putamen, provides an expected value-related input to the PAG, which then conveys PE signals to prefrontal regions important for behavioral regulation, including orbitofrontal, anterior mid-cingulate and dorsomedial prefrontal cortices. Thus, pain-related learning involves distinct neural circuitry, with implications for behavior and pain dynamics.
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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.