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Understanding Pain Perception and Psychological Influences

This study aims to understand how your brain and body react to pain, and how psychological factors like expectations and attention can change your pain experience. Researchers will use different behavioral instructions, such as learning about outcomes or focusing attention, and expose participants to thermal (heat) stimuli or tastes like sugar and salt water. They will measure your physiological responses (like heart rate and breathing), your pain ratings, and brain activity using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). The goal is to learn more about how pain is processed and influenced by your mind. You may be eligible if you are a healthy volunteer between 18 and 50 years old.

Study design
This interventional study plans to enroll 550 healthy volunteers. It includes several sub-studies that explore different aspects of pain perception.
What's involved
You would need to attend 1 to 2 clinic visits, each lasting 1 to 3 hours. During these visits, you might receive instructions, have your attention manipulated, or be exposed to thermal stimuli or tastants.
Compensation
Not stated in the trial record.
Follow-up
Physiological responses, pain perception, and brain activity will be measured during the study visits in response to stimuli.

AI-generated from the public study record. Only the study team can confirm whether you're eligible — confirm details with them before making decisions.

NCT02446262

Neural and Psychological Mechanisms of Pain Perception

Recruiting
NAAges 18–50InterventionalBasic science
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
~550 participants
Updated 2026-08-28 on ClinicalTrials.gov
What's tested:InstructionsAttentionThermal PainPlacebo instructions

At a glance

Recruiting sites
1 of 1 listed site is recruiting right now
RecruitingSuspended, closed, or not yet open
What they're measuring
Physiological responses (heart rate, skin conductance, respiration, pupil dilation, eye gaze position)
Measured over During the study visit in response to painful and non-painful stimuli.
+2 more outcomes measured

Conditions

Pain
Normal Physiology
Healthy Volunteers

Explore related trials

Pain

Where it's being run

1 sites across 1 states
Maryland1

Study leadership

  • Lauren Y Atlas, Ph.D. · PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR · National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

Who to contact

Adebisi O Ayodele, C.R.N.P.
[email protected]
(240) 593-4226
Email the study team

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Eligibility criteria

Inclusion

Healthy
Between 18 and 50 years old
Fluent in English
Able to provide written informed consent.

Exclusion

Unable to comply with study procedures or follow-up visits.
Has a major medical condition or medical history that in a clinician's assessment could affect heat sensitivity, pain thresholds, or ability to comply with study procedures. This may include cardiovascular, autonomic, or neurological conditions, including stroke, blindness, deafness, a history of brain damage, or a chronic systemic disease (e.g., diabetes).
Has a current mood disorder, anxiety disorder, or substance use disorder, or has a history of psychosis, hospitalization for a mental health condition, or recurrent psychiatric episodes.
Has a medical condition that in a clinician's assessment might affect somatosensation (e.g., Raynaud's disease, peripheral neuropathy, or circulatory disorder).
Has a current chronic pain condition or has had chronic pain in the past (painful condition lasting more than six months).
Has a dermatological condition affecting the testing region such as scars, burns, or recent tattoos that might influence cutaneous sensibility.
Regular use of prescription medication that has a significant effect on pain or heat perception. Excluded medications include central-acting agents such as opiates (morphine, tramadol), antidepressants (amitriptyline, duloxetine, milnacipran), anticonvulsants (gabapentin, pregabalin), anxiolytics (barbituates, benzodiazepines), hypnotics (zolpidem, sodium oxybate), antipsychotics (valproate, lithium, olanzapine), antimigraine agents (sumatriptan, ergotamine), and muscle relaxants (cyclobenzaprine, carisoprodol). Use of analgesic medications, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, salicylates, and acetaminophen, taken on an "as needed" basis is acceptable as long as the last dose taken was within 5 half-lives of testing.
Is pregnant.
NIH staff member who is a subordinate/relative/co-worker of any investigator on the protocol.
Individuals with conditions that could pose a risk relating to the safety of the fMRI procedure or pain stimulation will be excluded from the MRI portion of the protocol, but may participate in the non-fMRI sessions (with the exception of pregnant women). Such conditions include:
Those with ferromagnetic metal in the cranial cavity or eye, e.g. aneurysm clip, implanted neural stimulator, cochlear implant, ocular foreign body.
Those with an abnormality on a structural MRI.
Those with an implanted cardiac pacemaker or auto-defibrillator.
Those with an insulin pump.
Those with irremovable body piercing.
Pregnant women (based on urine test completed within 24 hours prior to scan).
Individuals who are left-handed (based on self-report or score on handedness questionnaire) will be excluded from fMRI substudies.
Participation in an NIH study of analgesia, as gleaned from CRIS.

What this trial measures

  • Physiological responses (heart rate, skin conductance, respiration, pupil dilation, eye gaze position)During the study visit in response to painful and non-painful stimuli.

    In behavioral and fMRI experiments, we measure autonomic responses in anticipation and response to painful and non-painful stimuli using non-invasive measures.

  • Pain perception (pain ratings)During the study visit in response to painful stimuli.

    Substudies of pain collect pain ratings using a visual analogue scale, either verbally or via computer.

  • BOLD response in brain regions of interest measured using fMRIDuring the study visit in response to painful and non-painful stimuli.

    FMRI substudies proceed following behavioral substudies. We measure brain responses in anticipation and response to painful and non-painful stimuli.