NCT Number: NCT07367672
This study investigates how belief and expectation influence empathic pain-the pain we feel when observing others in distress. Healthy adult participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: no-treatment control, placebo nasal spray, oxytocin-containing nasal spray. Participants in both the placebo and oxytocin conditions will be informed that they are receiving oxytocin, described as a potent agent for pain relief. During functional MRI scanning, all participants will view naturalistic pain-related videos and provide ratings of perceived subjective pain. The study aims to examine how cognitive beliefs and neuromodulatory interventions alter subjective pain experience and brain activity, including changes in brain network communication.
Interested in participating?
Request Info18 year–30 year
All sexes
Interventional
Not applicable
Weihua Zhao, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
This study examines how belief-driven expectations modulate empathic pain at both behavioral and neural levels. Healthy adult participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: no-treatment control, placebo nasal spray, oxytocin-containing nasal spray. Participants in both the placebo and oxytocin conditions will be informed that they are receiving oxytocin, described as a potent agent for pain relief.
During fMRI scanning, participants will complete a naturalistic empathic pain task by viewing videos depicting others in pain and rating their perceived pain on a standardized scale. Behavioral data will be transformed into analgesia-weighted scores to capture individual sensitivity to expectation-driven analgesia. Neural data will include whole-brain voxel-wise activity, multivariate predictive patterns derived from partial least squares regression (PLSR), and directed functional connectivity assessed using lagged partial-correlation directionality analysis (LPC-DA) to evaluate top-down and bottom-up information flow.
The primary objectives are to (1) assess the behavioral effects of expectation-driven analgesia, (2) identify brain regions predictive of pain modulation, and (3) characterize hierarchical network reorganization under different interventions.
Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes
Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.
Inclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria
Administer oxytocin (24 IU) intranasally, 6 individual 0.1 ml puffs (4 IU/0. 1ml), three puffs per nostril one every 30 seconds. The participants will be informed that they are receiving oxytocin, described as a potent agent for pain relief.
Other names: Intranasal Oxytocin
Administer placebo intranasally, 6 individual 0.1 ml puffs, three puffs per nostril one every 30 seconds. The participants will be informed that they are receiving oxytocin, described as a potent agent for pain relief.
Other names: Intranasal placebo
Time frame: During fMRI scanning (45 minutes follollowing treament adminstration), for each video stimulus presentation
Subjective pain ratings for each stimulus adjusted for treatment-specific baseline and analgesia-dependent gain to capture individual sensitivity to expectation-driven analgesia.
Time frame: During fMRI scanning (45 minutes follollowing treament adminstration), analyzed post-session
Partial least squares regression (PLSR) will be applied to voxel-wise fMRI contrast maps to identify latent components that predict analgesia-weighted pain scores under different interventions.
Time frame: During fMRI scanning (45 minutes follollowing treament adminstration), analyzed post-session
Lagged partial-correlation directionality analysis (LPC-DA) among key regions identified by PLSR will quantify top-down and bottom-up information flow in empathic pain circuits.
Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.
Keith Kendrick
CONTACT
Weihua Zhao
CONTACT
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Other
Acronym: PoB-EP
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