Experiment · 1997
Pain affect encoded in human anterior cingulate but not somatosensory cortex
Listen instead of reading · 35 minDirty Mind: Dirty Talk Hypnosis – Find Your Own WordsNo script, no borrowed lines: a trance that lets your own words out – in a lower, slower voice. Rainville, P., Duncan, G. H., Price, D. D., Carrier, B., & Bushnell, M. C. · Science, 277(5328), 968–971
Main finding
Ratings of unpleasantness changed with the suggestions, and so did activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. Activity in the primary somatosensory cortex, which tracks the physical sensation, did not change in the same way. Pain intensity and pain unpleasantness can be separated.
What was done
Healthy volunteers put a hand in hot water in the lab while their brain activity was measured with PET. Hypnotic suggestions asked them to experience the same heat as more or less unpleasant, without changing how intense it felt.
What the study does not show
Short, controlled laboratory pain in healthy people is not the same as long-term pain. The study is about how the brain processes pain, not a test of a treatment.
Cite as
Rainville, P., Duncan, G. H., Price, D. D., Carrier, B., & Bushnell, M. C. (1997). Pain affect encoded in human anterior cingulate but not somatosensory cortex. Science, 277(5328), 968–971. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.277.5328.968
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