ArticleScientific reports2018
Evidence for Cognitive Placebo and Nocebo Effects in Healthy Individuals.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of noninvasive brain stimulation in the treatment of anxiety disorders: a meta-analysis of sham or behaviour-controlled studies.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPNPooled it
- Beyond expectations: nocebo suggestion affects cognitive performance in older adults.Psychological research · 2026Trial
- Effect of tDCS targeting the M1 or left DLPFC on physical performance, psychophysiological responses, and cognitive function in repeated all-out cycling: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2023Trial
- Placebo effect on gait: a way to reduce the dual-task cost in older adults.Experimental brain research · 2023Trial
- Acute effect of high-definition and conventional tDCS on exercise performance and psychophysiological responses in endurance athletes: a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Supporting Visual Working Memory in Healthy Aging: A Review of Current Interventions and Perspectives on Future Approaches.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation for Core Symptoms of Chronic Primary Pain: A Meta-Analysis of RCTs.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Learning from missteps: Potential of transcranial electrical stimulation in neuropsychological rehabilitation.Journal of neuropsychology · 2025Review
- Not so great expectations: The role of price and name information in the nocebo effect.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2025Article
- Effect of tDCS targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on psychophysiological responses and brain oxygenation during exercise in healthy adults: a proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Magnesium-L-threonate improves sleep quality and daytime functioning in adults with self-reported sleep problems: A randomized controlled trial.Sleep medicine: X · 2024Article
- Uncertainty of treatment efficacy moderates placebo effects on reinforcement learning.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Reverse effect of home-use binaural beats brain stimulation.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Betting on Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation to Treat Gambling Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Psycho-Neuro-Endocrine-Immunological Basis of the Placebo Effect: Potential Applications beyond Pain Therapy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Mind-wandering: mechanistic insights from lesion, tDCS, and iEEG.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2022Review
- The Effects of Health Anxiety and Litigation Potential on Symptom Endorsement, Cognitive Performance, and Physiological Functioning in the Context of a Food and Drug Administration Drug Recall Announcement.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- A comparison of placebo and nocebo effects on objective and subjective postural stability: a double-edged sword?Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
- Non-invasive brain stimulation and neuroenhancement.Clinical neurophysiology practice · 2022Review
- Blinding in tDCS Studies: Correct End-of-Study Guess Does Not Moderate the Effects on Associative and Working Memory.Brain sciences · 2021Article
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 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Inactive interventions can have significant effects on cognitive performance. Understanding the generation of these cognitive placebo/nocebo effects is crucial for evaluating the cognitive impacts of interventional methods, such as non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS). We report both cognitive placebo and nocebo effects on reward-based learning performance induced using an active sham NIBS protocol, verbal suggestions and conditioning in 80 healthy participants. Whereas our placebo manipulation increased both expected and perceived cognitive performance, nocebo had a detrimental effect on both. Model-based analysis suggests manipulation-specific strategic adjustments in learning-rates: Participants in the placebo group showed stronger learning from losses and reduced behavioral noise, participants in the nocebo group showed stronger learning from gains and increased behavioral noise. We conclude that experimentally induced expectancy can impact cognitive functions of healthy adult participants. This has important implications for the use of double-blind study designs that can effectively maintain blinding in NIBS studies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.