Placebo Responses to Original vs. Generic ASA Brands During Exposure to Noxious Heat: A Pilot fMRI Study of Neurofunctional Correlates.

OBJECTIVE: We studied the expectation effects associated with brands by labeling placebo interventions (original and generic analgesic) and investigating the potential differences in efficacy between the two placebos in dealing with noxious heat pain, as well as exploring the neurometabolic correlates of the placebo response. DESIGN: We applied a two by two design with two identical placebo interventions that differed only in their labeling. One group was told that they received 500 mg of "Aspirin" (original brand) while the other group was told that they received a popular ASA generic (1A Pharma). After establishing the individual pain level of each subject, we measured pain intensities behaviorally before and after the intervention and looked for corresponding brain areas with increased hemodynamic response using functional magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS: At the behavioral level, we found decreases in pain intensity from baseline to the intervention condition with the original brand only. At the neuronal level, we specifically observed activations of the anterior insulae under the baseline conditions, complemented by activations of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex after the interventions. A direct comparison of the two placebo conditions revealed higher values of activation for the bilateral dorsolateral (as well as dorsomedial) prefrontal cortex for the original brand. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate a behavioral placebo response for the original brand only. Expectations by subjects appear to be triggered not only by the placebo treatment itself but also by the trusted brand, which thus serves as an enhanced placebo. Both processes appear to be based on fronto-cortical neural networks, as these areas showed significantly stronger activations with the original brand.

Neurocognitive processing of body representations in artistic and photographic images.

Visual art because of its artistic context can be related to the general idea of providing alternative perceptual experiences. However, research examining the neural basis of art beyond the paradigm of beauty has been neglected. This study seeks to determine how the perception of a body in an artwork can be distinguished from the perception of a body in a non-artistic photography. While viewing different body representations in both artworks and photographs, subjects were required to evaluate the appeal of the portrayed persons. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we show that the perception of a body within the context of art leads to a higher activation in the right parietal cortex and the extrastriate cortex bilaterally. Relating this result to concepts from previous research, we suggest that the perception of art is linked to visuo-spatial coding and also motor mapping. In contrast, the higher activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the primary visual cortex during the perception of a body in a non-artistic frame of reference, i.e. in a photograph, can be linked to processes of person evaluation. Possibly, the task to judge the appeal of a person in a photograph might be more daunting and, thus, cause emotional and even moral challenges being reflected in the ventromedial prefrontal activity. Taken together, perceptual experiences within an artistic vs. a non-artistic frame of reference are based on distinct patterns of neuronal activity.

Morality in advertising: An fMRI study on persuasion in communication.

Advertising slogans serve the function of persuasive communication by presenting catchy phrases. To decide whether a slogan is convincing or not, cognitive reasoning is assumed to be complemented by a more implicit and intuitive route of information processing, presumably similar to evaluating normative judgments in moral statements. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while Western male subjects judged advertising slogans and moral statements as another decision task with subjective nature. Compared to a neutral control condition that targeted declarative memory and to an aesthetic-related condition, the evaluation processes in both domains engaged the anterior medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which is associated with decision-making incorporating personal value. Conjoint activations were also observed in the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ) when compared to the aesthetics condition. Results are discussed with reference to domain-independence, a suspected difference to aesthetic-like appreciations, and functional organization in the mPFC and the TPJ.

Gender Differences in the Perception of Personalized Half-Nude Female Bodies.

In the current study, we investigated how the perception of half-nude female body representations is altered by framing with information about the presented person. Images from tabloid newspapers were presented to male and female observers, and rated according to their aesthetic appeal while neurofunctional correlates were assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging. While a generally stronger appetitive response might be expected in men, our results show a significant interaction between framing condition and gender of the observer. Men rated female bodies as more pleasing when presented without personal information, whereas women expressed more aesthetic appeal when information was added. Neuroimaging data revealed gender differences in processing body representations with additional personal information. In women, there was a stronger involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex and adjacent ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and in male observers a higher engagement of the bilateral inferior parietal cortex, when compared to each other respectively. These gender differences in framing effects particularly highlight higher aesthetic appeal and reward processing in women when female bodies are personalized.

Compassion, guilt and innocence: An fMRI study of responses to victims who are responsible for their fate.

Compassion is a human feeling towards an individual who is suffering. However, the responses toward a victim are not always compassionate and may, for example, be moderated by the perceived responsibility of the victim. In the present study, we investigated the neural correlates of compassion and specifically differentiated the responses to other individuals' misfortunes depending on whether the victim was responsible for the event that occurred. In particular, we identified increased activation of the left insula, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and adjacent anterior cingulate cortex when the participants read sentences with innocent compared with responsible victims. The reverse contrast revealed increased activation of the bilateral temporoparietal junction, right precuneus, and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Using a psycho-physiological interaction (PPI) analysis, we demonstrated that in the responsible condition, right dlPFC activation was accompanied by decreased activation in the left insula, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and mPFC. This inverse effective connectivity illustrates the antagonism of the dlPFC and mPFC in compassion-related appraisal of external events. More specifically, our results imply that regulatory mechanisms of compassion are related to the perception of responsibility.

Is it the picture or is it the frame? An fMRI study on the neurobiology of framing effects.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we investigated whether a culturally defined context modulates the neurocognitive processing of artworks. We presented subjects with paintings from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, and labeled them as being either from the MoMA or from an adult education center. Irrespective of aesthetic appreciation, we found higher neural activation in the left precuneus, superior and inferior parietal cortex for the MoMA condition compared to the control label condition. When taking the aesthetic preference for a painting into account, the MoMA condition elicited higher involvement of right precuneus, bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and temporoparietal junction (TPJ). Our findings indicate that mental frames, in particular labels of social value, modulate both cognitive and affective aspects of sensory processing.

Culture and its neurofunctional correlates when death is in mind.

The human fear of death is marked by specific psychological reactions that affirm cultural belonging. Terror management theory explains this phenomenon with the symbolic immortality provided by collective meaning in culture. This coping has also been explained with the motive of maintaining a meaningful representation of the world. Here we show that neural patterns of activations corresponding to cultural worldview defense processes differed when images that affirmed participants' cultural heritage were preceded by death-related verbal primes versus verbal primes threatening meaning. Cultural content was drawn upon distinctly on a neural basis when facing death-related cognitions. The neural representation of cultural coping sheds light on the immediate mechanisms in compensating the human fear of death.