TY  - JOUR
AU  - Herpertz, Sabine C
AU  - Schmitgen, Mike M
AU  - Fuchs, Christine
AU  - Roth, Corinna
AU  - Wolf, Robert Christian
AU  - Bertsch, Katja
AU  - Flor, Herta
AU  - Grinevich, Valery
AU  - Boll, Sabrina
TI  - Oxytocin Effects on Pain Perception and Pain Anticipation.
JO  - The journal of pain
VL  - 20
IS  - 10
SN  - 1526-5900
CY  - New York, NY
PB  - Elsevier
M1  - DKFZ-2019-01085
SP  - 1187-1198
PY  - 2019
AB  - There is an ongoing debate whether the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) modulates pain processing in humans. This study differentiates behavioral and neuronal OT effects on pain perception and pain anticipation by using a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm. Forty-six males received intranasally administered OT in a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled group design. Although OT exerted no direct effect on perceived pain, OT was found to modulate the blood-oxygen-level-dependent response in the ventral striatum for painful versus warm unconditioned stimuli (US) and to decrease activity in the anterior insula with repeated thermal pain stimuli. Regarding pain anticipation, OT increased responses to CSpain versus CSminus in the nucleus accumbens. Furthermore, in the OT condition increased correct expectations, particularly for the most certain CS-US associations (CSminus and CSpain), were found as well as greatest deactivations in the right posterior insula in response to the least certain condition (CSwarm) with posterior insula activity and correct expectancies being positively correlated. In conclusion, OT appears to have both, a direct effect on pain processing via the ventral striatum and by inducing habituation in the anterior insula as well as on pain anticipation by boostering associative learning in general and the neuronal conditioned fear of pain response in particular. PERSPECTIVE: The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) has recently raised the hope to offer a novel avenue for modulating pain experience. This study found OT to modulate pain processing and to facilitate the anticipation of pain inspiring further research on OT effects on the affective dimension of the pain experience.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:31009765
DO  - DOI:10.1016/j.jpain.2019.04.002
UR  - https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/143501
ER  -