TY - JOUR
T1 - Neurocognitive aspects of pain perception
AU - Wiech, Katja
AU - Ploner, Markus
AU - Tracey, Irene
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation (M.P.), the Templeton Foundation (K.W.), the Nuffield Trust (I.T.) and the Medical Research Council [Oxford Centre of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) Centre].
PY - 2008/8
Y1 - 2008/8
N2 - The perception of pain is sensitive to various mental processes such as the feelings and beliefs that someone has about pain. It is therefore not exclusively driven by the noxious input. Attentional modulation involving the descending pain modulatory system has been examined extensively in neuroimaging studies. However, the investigation of neural mechanisms underlying more complex cognitive modulation is an emerging field in pain research. Recent findings indicate an engagement of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during more complex modulation, leading to a change or reappraisal of the emotional significance of pain. Taking placebo-induced analgesia as an example, we discuss the contribution of attention, expectation and reappraisal as three basic mechanisms that are important for the cognitive modulation of pain.
AB - The perception of pain is sensitive to various mental processes such as the feelings and beliefs that someone has about pain. It is therefore not exclusively driven by the noxious input. Attentional modulation involving the descending pain modulatory system has been examined extensively in neuroimaging studies. However, the investigation of neural mechanisms underlying more complex cognitive modulation is an emerging field in pain research. Recent findings indicate an engagement of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during more complex modulation, leading to a change or reappraisal of the emotional significance of pain. Taking placebo-induced analgesia as an example, we discuss the contribution of attention, expectation and reappraisal as three basic mechanisms that are important for the cognitive modulation of pain.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=47249097422&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.tics.2008.05.005
DO - 10.1016/j.tics.2008.05.005
M3 - Review article
C2 - 18606561
AN - SCOPUS:47249097422
SN - 1364-6613
VL - 12
SP - 306
EP - 313
JO - Trends in Cognitive Sciences
JF - Trends in Cognitive Sciences
IS - 8
ER -