http://www.nitrc.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=8636 <table border="0" width="100%"><tr><td align="left"/></tr></table> <p><b>Transforming pain with prosocial meaning: an fMRI study.</b></p> <p>Psychosom Med. 2018 May 24;:</p> <p>Authors: López-Solà M, Koban L, Wager TD</p> <p>Abstract<br/> OBJECTIVES: Contextual factors can transform how we experience pain, particularly if pain is associated with other positive outcomes. Here we test a novel meaning-based intervention: Participants were given the opportunity to choose to receive pain on behalf of their romantic partners, situating pain experience in a positive, prosocial meaning context. We predicted that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a key structure for pain regulation and generation of affective meaning, would mediate the transformation of pain experience by this prosocial interpersonal context.<br/> METHODS: We studied fMRI activity and behavioral responses in 29 heterosexual female participants during (1) a baseline pain challenge and (2) a task in which participants decided to accept a self-selected number of additional pain trials in order to reduce pain in their male romantic partners ("Accept Partner-Pain" condition).<br/> RESULTS: Enduring extra pain for the benefit of the romantic partner reduced pain-related unpleasantness (t=-2.54,p=.016) but not intensity, and increased positive thoughts (t=3.60,p=.001) and pleasant feelings (t=5.39,p&lt;.0005). Greater willingness to accept one's partner pain predicted greater unpleasantness reductions (t=3.94,p=.001) and increases in positive thoughts (r=.457,p=.013). The vmPFC showed significant increases (q&lt;.05 FDR-corrected) in activation during Accept-Partner-Pain, especially for women with greater willingness to relieve their partner's pain (t=2.63, p=.014). Reductions in brain regions processing pain and aversive emotion significantly mediated reductions in pain unpleasantness (q&lt;.05 FDR-corrected).<br/> CONCLUSIONS: The vmPFC has a key role in transforming the meaning of pain, which is associated with a cascade of positive psychological and brain effects, including changes in affective meaning, value, and pain-specific neural circuits.<br/> </p><p>PMID: 29846310 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]</p> en-us Copyright 2000-2026 NITRC OSI Mon, 27 Apr 2026 2:38:59 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss NITRC RSS generator