ArticleScientific reports2017
Placebo Intervention Enhances Reward Learning in Healthy Individuals.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond expectations: nocebo suggestion affects cognitive performance in older adults.Psychological research · 2026Trial
- Efficacy of tRNS and 140 Hz tACS on motor cortex excitability seemingly dependent on sensitivity to sham stimulation.Experimental brain research · 2019Trial
- Supporting Visual Working Memory in Healthy Aging: A Review of Current Interventions and Perspectives on Future Approaches.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Placebo in Functional Neurological Disorders: Promise and Controversy.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Uncertainty of treatment efficacy moderates placebo effects on reinforcement learning.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Using Drift Diffusion and RL Models to Disentangle Effects of Depression On Decision-Making vs. Learning in the Probabilistic Reward Task.Computational psychiatry (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Mind-wandering: mechanistic insights from lesion, tDCS, and iEEG.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2022Review
- Non-invasive brain stimulation and neuroenhancement.Clinical neurophysiology practice · 2022Review
- Investigating the effects of tDCS on Visual Orientation Discrimination Task Performance: 'The possible influence of placebo'.Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice · 2020Article
- "Placebo by Proxy" and "Nocebo by Proxy" in Children: A Review of Parents' Role in Treatment Outcomes.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Review
- Placebo- and Nocebo-Effects in Cognitive Neuroenhancement: When Expectation Shapes Perception.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Article
- Evidence for Cognitive Placebo and Nocebo Effects in Healthy Individuals.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Putting focus on transcranial direct current stimulation in language production studies.PloS one · 2018Article
- Combining reward and M1 transcranial direct current stimulation enhances the retention of newly learnt sensorimotor mappings.Brain stimulationArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
According to the placebo-reward hypothesis, placebo is a reward-anticipation process that increases midbrain dopamine (DA) levels. Reward-based learning processes, such as reinforcement learning, involves a large part of the DA-ergic network that is also activated by the placebo intervention. Given the neurochemical overlap between placebo and reward learning, we investigated whether verbal instructions in conjunction with a placebo intervention are capable of enhancing reward learning in healthy individuals by using a monetary reward-based reinforcement-learning task. Placebo intervention was performed with non-invasive brain stimulation techniques. In a randomized, triple-blind, cross-over study we investigated this cognitive placebo effect in healthy individuals by manipulating the participants' perceived uncertainty about the intervention's efficacy. Volunteers in the purportedly low- and high-uncertainty conditions earned more money, responded more quickly and had a higher learning rate from monetary rewards relative to baseline. Participants in the purportedly high-uncertainty conditions showed enhanced reward learning, and a model-free computational analysis revealed a higher learning rate from monetary rewards compared to the purportedly low-uncertainty and baseline conditions. Our results indicate that the placebo response is able to enhance reward learning in healthy individuals, opening up exciting avenues for future research in placebo effects on other cognitive functions.
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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.