SynthesisNature communications2021
Meta-analysis of neural systems underlying placebo analgesia from individual participant fMRI data.
Synthesis in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 5 of them syntheses 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
85 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Meta-analytic evidence for distinct neural correlates of conditioned versus verbally induced placebo analgesia.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Neural Correlates of Explicit Outcome Expectation Effects: An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis.Human brain mapping · 2026Pooled it
- Pain, mindfulness, and placebo: a systematic review.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Altered resting-state brain activity in functional dyspepsia patients: a coordinate-based meta-analysis.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Functional Neuroimaging Correlates of Placebo Response in Patients With Depressive or Anxiety Disorders: A Systematic Review.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Mindfulness Meditation and Placebo Modulate Distinct Multivariate Neural Signatures to Reduce Pain.Biological psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Independent effects of transcranial direct current stimulation and social influence on pain.Pain · 2025Trial
- Open-Label Placebo Injection for Chronic Back Pain With Functional Neuroimaging: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Dopamine has no direct causal role in the formation of treatment expectations and placebo analgesia in humans.PLoS biology · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Task-dependent functional connectivity of pain is associated with the magnitude of placebo analgesia in pain-free individuals.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2023Trial
- Open-Label Placebo for the Treatment of Cancer-Related Fatigue in Patients with Advanced Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Trial.The oncologist · 2022Trial
- Short-Term Magnesium Therapy Alleviates Moderate Stress in Patients with Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Double-Blind Clinical Trial.Nutrients · 2022Trial
- Placebo Analgesia Does Not Generalize From Pain to Interoceptive Abilities: A Preregistered Exploratory Study.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Parkinson's disease: Individual placebo responses are predicted by baseline expression of a striato-limbic network.Research square · 2026Article
- Placebo analgesia persistence: evaluating behavioural stability in repeated trials.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Cholecystokinin input from the anterior cingulate cortex to the lateral periaqueductal gray mediates nocebo pain behavior in mice.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Brain network representations of placebo analgesia.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Functional connectivity-based attractor dynamics of the human brain in rest, task, and disease.eLife · 2026Article
- Through Massage to the Brain-Neuronal and Neuroplastic Mechanisms of Massage Based on Various Neuroimaging Techniques (EEG, fMRI, and fNIRS).Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
25 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
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The brain systems underlying placebo analgesia are insufficiently understood. Here we performed a systematic, participant-level meta-analysis of experimental functional neuroimaging studies of evoked pain under stimulus-intensity-matched placebo and control conditions, encompassing 603 healthy participants from 20 (out of 28 eligible) studies. We find that placebo vs. control treatments induce small, widespread reductions in pain-related activity, particularly in regions belonging to ventral attention (including mid-insula) and somatomotor networks (including posterior insula). Behavioral placebo analgesia correlates with reduced pain-related activity in these networks and the thalamus, habenula, mid-cingulate, and supplementary motor area. Placebo-associated activity increases occur mainly in frontoparietal regions, with high between-study heterogeneity. We conclude that placebo treatments affect pain-related activity in multiple brain areas, which may reflect changes in nociception and/or other affective and decision-making processes surrounding pain. Between-study heterogeneity suggests that placebo analgesia is a multi-faceted phenomenon involving multiple cerebral mechanisms that differ across 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.