Descrizione del progetto
Modulazione del dolore attraverso il condizionamento
Per i pazienti che convivono con un dolore cronico, il trattamento farmacologico è ancora carente in termini di sollievo efficace e duraturo. Ciò comporta la necessità di rimedi che tengano conto del fattore psicologico. Tuttavia, è richiesto uno studio più ampio sulla base neurale del processo e sul modo in cui l’attività cerebrale cambia, al fine di riconoscere le informazioni rilevanti e non rilevanti durante il condizionamento. Il progetto NeuroCon, finanziato dall’UE, si propone di comprendere la relazione tra il condizionamento classico e l’aspettativa nell’analgesia placebo. Inoltre, esso esaminerà l’attuazione di forme classiche di condizionamento nel contesto della paura di base. Il progetto spera di determinare il modo in cui le cortecce sensoriali vengono modificate per individuare meglio le informazioni rilevanti.
Obiettivo
Chronic pain patients cannot be efficiently treated with pharmacological methods and hence investigating alternatives such as psychological-based treatments is essential. One of the well-recognised method of analgesia is placebo which is based on learning processes – classical conditioning (CC). Through CC, expectations about pain relief are formed and those are recognised to mediate the placebo effect. Moreover, the effects of CC play a prominent role in the development of chronic pain-related fear and disability, so investigating the basis of fear conditioning may help developing better pain management strategies.
Expectations about pain relief are shown to reduce the activation of pain-related brain regions and cues associated with pain decrease are processed in higher-order areas of the brain. However, the latest studies are inconclusive in determining to what extent expectations are elicited consciously or unconsciously and it is suggested that it depends the way the effect is generated - simple conditioning or conditioning with verbally induced expectations. In order to bring new light on this subject, the neural basis of the process and how the brain activity changes in order to recognise relevant and irrelevant information during conditioning still needs further investigation.
In order to understand the relation between CC and expectancy in placebo analgesia, this project will implement both types of CC in the context of basic fear conditioning procedure. The brain activity will be measured using MEG and EEG technique and investigated using multiple methods of signal analysis which is a novelty in placebo research. The aim of the project is investigating how sensory cortices are modified to better detect relevant information using MEG and studying anticipatory brain activity using EEG. It may provide an answer to what extent conscious and unconscious processes are involved in pain modulation and what regions of are involved in this process.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
28040 Madrid
Spagna