2016/01/31 by Luca Puviani, Puviani, Luca, Sidita Rama +1
Neuroscience · #Axon Guidance and Neuronal Signaling #FOS: Biological sciences #Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) #Neuroscience, Education and Cognitive Function #Pain Management and Placebo Effect
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1602.00258
openalex publication_date 2016/01/31 · openalex created_date 2022/10/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Despite growing scientific interest in the placebo effect and increasing\nunderstanding of neurobiological mechanisms, theoretical modeling of the\nplacebo response remains poorly developed. The most extensively accepted\ntheories are expectation and conditioning, involving both conscious and\nunconscious information processing. However, it is not completely understood\nhow these mechanisms can shape the placebo response. We focus here on neural\nprocesses which can account for key properties of the response to substance\nintake. It is shown that placebo response can be conceptualized as a reaction\nof a distributed neural system within the central nervous system. Such a\nreaction represents an integrated component of the response to open substance\nadministration (or to substance intake) and is updated through "unconditioned\nstimulus (UCS) revaluation" learning. The analysis leads to a theorem, which\nproves the existence of two distinct quantities coded within the brain, these\nare the expected or prediction outcome and the reactive response. We show that\nthe reactive response is updated automatically by implicit revaluation lerning,\nwhile the expected outcome can also be modulated through conscious information\nprocessing. Conceptualizing the response to substance intake in terms of UCS\nrevaluation learning leads to the theoretical formulation of a potential\nneuropharmacological treatment for increasing unlimitedly the effectiveness of\na given drug.\n