title: Uncertainty increases pain: evidence for a novel mechanism of pain modulation involving the periaqueductal gray.
abstract: Predictions about sensory input exert a dominant effect on what we perceive, and this is particularly true for the experience of pain. However, it remains unclear what component of prediction, from an information-theoretic perspective, controls this effect. We used a vicarious pain observation paradigm to study how the underlying statistics of predictive information modulate experience. Subjects observed judgments that a group of people made to a painful thermal stimulus, before receiving the same stimulus themselves. We show that the mean observed rating exerted a strong assimilative effect on subjective pain. In addition, we show that observed uncertainty had a specific and potent hyperalgesic effect. Using computational functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that this effect correlated with activity in the periaqueductal gray. Our results provide evidence for a novel form of cognitive hyperalgesia relating to perceptual uncertainty, induced here by vicarious observation, with control mediated by the brainstem pain modulatory system.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom. yoshida@atr.jp
authors.forename: Wako
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Seymour
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koltzenburg
authors.forename: Raymond J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Dolan
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010146:Pain / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D058748:Pain Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D017288:Pain Threshold; D010487:Periaqueductal Gray / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000009:adverse effects; D035501:Uncertainty
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
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