title: Disgust regulation via placebo: an fMRI study.
abstract: The present fMRI study investigated whether placebo treatment can change disgust feelings. Disgust-prone women underwent a retest design where they were presented with disgusting, fear-eliciting and neutral pictures once with and once without a placebo (inert pill presented with the suggestion that it can reduce disgust symptoms). The placebo provoked a strong decrease of experienced disgust, which was accompanied by reduced insula activation. Exploratory psychophysiological interaction analyses revealed decreased connectivity in a network consisting of the insula, the amygdala, the anterior cingulate cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex. Moreover, the placebo increased amygdala-DMPFC coactivation. Our findings suggest that placebo use can modulate a specific affective state and might be an option as a first therapy step for clinical samples characterized by excessive and difficult-to-control disgust feelings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, Austria anne.schienle@uni-graz.at.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schienle
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Übel
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schöngaßner
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Rottraut
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ille
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Scharmüller
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D015990:Placebo Effect; D057566:Self Report; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: affective pictures; disgust; fMRI; insula; placebo; prefrontal cortex