Neural Habituation to Painful Stimuli Is Modulated by Dopamine: Evidence from a Pharmacological fMRI Study
In constantly changing environments, it is crucial to adaptively respond to threatening events. In particular, painful stimuli are not only processed in terms of their absolute intensity, but also with respect to their context. While contextual pain processing can simply entail the repeated processi...
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doaj-1f510a4c0b9a40548f3e8fc880d8aa972020-11-25T02:09:33ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612017-12-011110.3389/fnhum.2017.00630293033Neural Habituation to Painful Stimuli Is Modulated by Dopamine: Evidence from a Pharmacological fMRI StudyEva M. Bauch0Eva M. Bauch1Christina Andreou2Vanessa H. Rausch3Vanessa H. Rausch4Nico Bunzeck5Nico Bunzeck6Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, GermanyMedical School Hamburg (MSH), University of Applied Science and Medical University, Hamburg, GermanyCenter for Gender Research and Early Detection, University Psychiatric Clinics Basel, Basel, SwitzerlandDepartment of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, GermanyDepartment of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, GermanyDepartment of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, GermanyInstitute of Psychology I, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, GermanyIn constantly changing environments, it is crucial to adaptively respond to threatening events. In particular, painful stimuli are not only processed in terms of their absolute intensity, but also with respect to their context. While contextual pain processing can simply entail the repeated processing of information (i.e., habituation), it can, in a more complex form, be expressed through predictions of magnitude before the delivery of nociceptive information (i.e., adaptive coding). Here, we investigated the brain regions involved in the adaptation to nociceptive electrical stimulation as well as their link to dopaminergic neurotransmission (placebo/haloperidol). The main finding is that haloperidol changed the habituation to the absolute pain intensity over time. More precisely, in the placebo condition, activity in left postcentral gyrus and midcingulate cortex increased linearly with pain intensity only in the beginning of the experiment and subsequently habituated. In contrast, when the dopaminergic system was blocked by haloperidol, a linear increase with pain intensity was present throughout the entire experiment. Finally, there were no adaptive coding effects in any brain regions. Together, our findings provide novel insights into the nature of pain processing by suggesting that dopaminergic neurotransmission plays a specific role for the habituation to painful stimuli over time.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00630/fullpharmacological fMRIEEGpainhabituationhaloperidol |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Eva M. Bauch Eva M. Bauch Christina Andreou Vanessa H. Rausch Vanessa H. Rausch Nico Bunzeck Nico Bunzeck |
spellingShingle |
Eva M. Bauch Eva M. Bauch Christina Andreou Vanessa H. Rausch Vanessa H. Rausch Nico Bunzeck Nico Bunzeck Neural Habituation to Painful Stimuli Is Modulated by Dopamine: Evidence from a Pharmacological fMRI Study Frontiers in Human Neuroscience pharmacological fMRI EEG pain habituation haloperidol |
author_facet |
Eva M. Bauch Eva M. Bauch Christina Andreou Vanessa H. Rausch Vanessa H. Rausch Nico Bunzeck Nico Bunzeck |
author_sort |
Eva M. Bauch |
title |
Neural Habituation to Painful Stimuli Is Modulated by Dopamine: Evidence from a Pharmacological fMRI Study |
title_short |
Neural Habituation to Painful Stimuli Is Modulated by Dopamine: Evidence from a Pharmacological fMRI Study |
title_full |
Neural Habituation to Painful Stimuli Is Modulated by Dopamine: Evidence from a Pharmacological fMRI Study |
title_fullStr |
Neural Habituation to Painful Stimuli Is Modulated by Dopamine: Evidence from a Pharmacological fMRI Study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Neural Habituation to Painful Stimuli Is Modulated by Dopamine: Evidence from a Pharmacological fMRI Study |
title_sort |
neural habituation to painful stimuli is modulated by dopamine: evidence from a pharmacological fmri study |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
issn |
1662-5161 |
publishDate |
2017-12-01 |
description |
In constantly changing environments, it is crucial to adaptively respond to threatening events. In particular, painful stimuli are not only processed in terms of their absolute intensity, but also with respect to their context. While contextual pain processing can simply entail the repeated processing of information (i.e., habituation), it can, in a more complex form, be expressed through predictions of magnitude before the delivery of nociceptive information (i.e., adaptive coding). Here, we investigated the brain regions involved in the adaptation to nociceptive electrical stimulation as well as their link to dopaminergic neurotransmission (placebo/haloperidol). The main finding is that haloperidol changed the habituation to the absolute pain intensity over time. More precisely, in the placebo condition, activity in left postcentral gyrus and midcingulate cortex increased linearly with pain intensity only in the beginning of the experiment and subsequently habituated. In contrast, when the dopaminergic system was blocked by haloperidol, a linear increase with pain intensity was present throughout the entire experiment. Finally, there were no adaptive coding effects in any brain regions. Together, our findings provide novel insights into the nature of pain processing by suggesting that dopaminergic neurotransmission plays a specific role for the habituation to painful stimuli over time. |
topic |
pharmacological fMRI EEG pain habituation haloperidol |
url |
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00630/full |
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