ReviewAnnual review of neuroscience2023
How Instructions, Learning, and Expectations Shape Pain and Neurobiological Responses.
Review in Annual review of neuroscience, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Meta-analytic evidence for distinct neural correlates of conditioned versus verbally induced placebo analgesia.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Domain-General Neural Effects of Associative Learning and Expectations on Pain and Hedonic Taste Perception.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Trial
- A Reliable Effect of Alexithymia, but Not Autism, on Placebo Hypoalgesia.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
- Placebo and nocebo effects on pain through the lens of the predictive brain: Neurobiological mechanisms and translational implications.Experimental physiology · 2026Review
- Optimal Timing for Intrauterine Device Insertion During the Menstrual Cycle: A Comparative Study of Pain, Bleeding, and Postprocedural Outcomes.Clinics and practice · 2026Article
- Temporal Interference Stimulation of the Motor Cortex Produces Frequency-Dependent Analgesia.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Placebo Effect on Pain-Related Autonomic Responses in a State of Experimentally-Induced Sensitization.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Observational
- Mirror Neurons and Pain: A Scoping Review of Experimental, Social, and Clinical Evidence.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Contingency awareness shapes neural responses in fear conditioning.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Article
- EEG oscillations reveal neuroplastic changes in pain processing associated with long-term meditation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Short-term variability of chronic musculoskeletal pain.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Cannabis oil extracts for chronic pain: what else can be learned from another structured prospective cohort?Pain reports · 2024Article
- Towards a Real-Life Understanding of the Altered Functional Behaviour of the Default Mode and Salience Network in Chronic Pain: Are People with Chronic Pain Overthinking the Meaning of Their Pain?Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- The Efficacy of Neuromodulation Interventions for Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of pain research · 2024Review
- Computational Psychiatry and the Placebo Effect in Psychosis.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2023Article
- Differential behavioral response to predator odor in neuropathic pain in mice.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
Treatment outcomes are strongly influenced by expectations, as evidenced by the placebo effect. Meta-analyses of clinical trials reveal that placebo effects are strongest in pain, indicating that psychosocial factors directly influence pain. In this review, I focus on the neural and psychological mechanisms by which instructions, learning, and expectations shape subjective pain. I address new experimental designs that help researchers tease apart the impact of these distinct processes and evaluate the evidence regarding the neural mechanisms by which these cognitive factors shape subjective pain. Studies reveal that expectations modulate pain through parallel circuits that include both pain-specific and domain-general circuits such as those involved in affect and learning. I then review how expectations, learning, and verbal instructions impact clinical outcomes, including placebo analgesia and responses to pharmacological treatments, and discuss implications for future work.
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.