The Power of Expectations
@sfb-trr-289
SFB/TRR 289, a transregional collaborative research center on the role of patients’ treatment expectations Joint work of @unidue.bsky.social, @uni-hamburg.de & @unimarburg.bsky.social Speaker @ulrikebingel.bsky.social
BU processing was strongest in middle cortical layers. TD modulation preferentially engaged superficial layers, consistent with cortico-cortical feedback mechanisms. Individual differences in this laminar segregation predicted the magnitude of distraction-induced analgesia.
Here, using submillimeter-resolution 7T fMRI, we tested whether bottom-up (BU) and top-down (TD) influences on pain are segregated across cortical layers in human sensory-discriminative regions. Participants underwent a painful heat stimulation and a cognitive modulation.
⏰ New preprint ⏰ "Layer-specific cortical processing dissociates sensory and cognitive influences on pain" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Collab w. @elh-institute.bsky.social, @tspisak.bsky.social, @ulrikebingel.bsky.social and some people not on here 😍
Thanks @torwager.bsky.social for this enlightening dispatch in @currentbiology.bsky.social! 🤩 Read it here: www.cell.com/current-biol... And here is the discussed work in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
💐✨ Huge congrats to Dr. Balint Kincses ✨💐 He has received the IFORES Career Kickstart grant for "Layers of pain: uncovering the mechanisms in the cortical integration of bottom-up and top-down processes in pain perception and its modulation using ultra-high field fMRI" @elh-institute.bsky.social
We are deeply grateful to all our collaborators for their willingness to share data, expertise, & ideas 😍 Their commitment to open, transparent, & reproducible science made it possible to answer a question no single study could have addressed alone 💪 More info: placebo-imaging-consortium.github.io
How does a placebo reduce pain? 🤔 Our study suggests that the answer depends on how the placebo effect is induced. We combine brain imaging data from 16 studies involving 409 participants: Verbal suggestions & learning through experience recruit overlapping—but partly distinct—brain mechanisms.
More than words: Experience shapes #placebo pain relief through additional brain pathways 🧠 We're excited to share our latest publication in @natcomms.nature.com! 🤩 🔗 Read the paper: rdcu.be/fuxmn #neuroskyence #PsychSciSky #Neuroscience #PainResearch #BrainImaging #TeamScience #Reproducibility
“People interpret numbers in very different ways,” says psychologist @tobikube.bsky.social in the latest episode of our CRC podcast 🎙️👨⚕️ In medicine, it is particularly important to communicate quantities and figures sensitively. Listen now: open.spotify.com/episode/6mC0...
Wie in Gesundheitsberufen Tätige gezielt Erwartungen nutzen können, um Therapien für PatientInnen noch besser zu machen, erklären @liviaasan.bsky.social und Dr. Lorenz Peters am 7.7.2026 an Bord der „MS Wissenschaft“ in Duisburg.
Wir sind auf der #MSWissenschaft mit unserer Veranstaltung „Die Kraft der Erwartung – Wie geht gute Kommunikation in der Medizin?“ ➡️ Wann? Dienstag, 7. Juli 2026, 15:30 bis 17 Uhr ➡️ Wo? Duisburger Innenhafen am Kultur- und Stadthistorischen Museum ➡️ Der Eintritt ist frei, Anmeldung nicht nötig.
♥️ You have to celebrate ALL the victories! ♥️ Today, after 114 testing sessions, Team Empathy from the Bingellab celebrated the finished data collection of Julia Braunstein's study with lots of ice cream! 🍨
Damit PatientInnen medizinische Sachverhalte verstehen, sollten Behandelnde komplizierte Fachsprache vermeiden 😵💫 Gleichzeitig müssen sie präzise, korrekt & medizinisch zutreffend kommunizieren 🤷♀️ Wir sprechen dazu mit Dr. med. Anja Bittner in einer neuen Folge. ▶️ open.spotify.com/episode/65hS...
▶️ #2190 from Tamas Spisak, presented by Jenya Lerer and Kevin Hoffschlag on "Attractor dynamics in large-scale brain networks"
Today and tomorrow we have a few posters from the CRC at #OHBM2026! 🧠 ▶️ #2066 from Jialin Li on "Beyond pain: a brain-based signature predicts individual pain relief" ▶️ #2234 from @ggallitto.bsky.social on "External validation of machine-learning models - registered models & adaptive splitting"
Our CRC member @jlaferton.bsky.social is on the boat until 3pm to answer all of your questions! 🚢🤩
And the early career researchers took this opportunity to network across our research sites 😍
Some of the CRC members met up at the German Psychotherapy Congress currently happening in Berlin! ♥️ @dpk-kongress.bsky.social #dpk26
Our visiting PhD student Julia Braunstein from the @scanunit.bsky.social gave a talk on her new study investigating the effects of treatment expectations on empathy for pain! 🤩 #ESCAN2026 @escaneu.bsky.social
Missed one of our CRC webinars over the past few years? 🤔 No worries, here they all are in a loooong thread so you can rewatch them 🤩 The whole playlist can be found here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... As always, we'd love it if you subscribed: www.youtube.com/@SFB-TRR_289
„Jedes Gespräch, das Sie als Arzt oder Ärztin nur einmal führen müssen und nicht fünfmal, ist eine Zeitersparnis“ Das sagt die Psychologin Regine Heiland in der aktuellen Folge unseres Podcasts „Wirkstoff Wort – Der Podcast für gute Kommunikation in der Medizin“. open.spotify.com/episode/7DTC...
Amazing new work from project A06 led by Eun Jin Shim and @stefaniebrassen.bsky.social! 🤩 This study examined whether positive expectations improve outcomes in depressed patients and whether individual placebo responsiveness predicts treatment success 💊 Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Huge congrats to our emerging PI, @aulenkamp.bsky.social for receiving an editorial fellowship from the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia! 👏 The fellowship mentors and trains "early-career individuals interested in better understanding and more effectively contributing to scholarly publishing."
Next up is one of our emerging PIs, Carmen Schäuffele, talking about personalization in digital mental health 📱👩💻
After the lunch break, our CRC speaker @ulrikebingel.bsky.social is now talking about the role of expectations for health and treatment outcomes ⚕️👩⚕️💊 Very important in all this: the patient perspective! 🙌
Today some of our CRC members are at the inaugural symposium of the Center of Medical Psychology and Translational Neuroscience @ruhr-uni-bochum.de 🙌 We are very much looking forward to a day of great talks, poster presentations and of course stimulating discussions! ✨
What did the authors find? 🤔 Cerebellar placebo analgesia follows a biphasic, predictive model: anticipation sets up cerebellar circuits, which then reduce pain responses during stimulation.