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.

Symmetric in the striate but asymmetric in the extrastriate cortex when processing three-quarter faces: Neural underpinnings for aesthetic appreciations.

Faces and their aesthetic appreciation are a core element of social interaction. Although studies have been made on facial processing when looking at faces with different perspectives, a direct comparison of faces in the left to the right perspective is missing. Portraits in classical Western art indicate a preference of the left compared to the right perspective, but the neural underpinnings of such an asymmetry still have to be clarified. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the current study focuses on the processing of three-quarter faces seen with different perspectives. Seventeen participants were asked to passively look at photographs of six male and six female faces with a neutral expression; the photographs were taken from the left, right, and frontal perspectives while keeping their focus on the eyes. The results showed that specific brain areas were involved in processing the three-quarter faces in either symmetric or asymmetric ways. Viewing left and right three-quarter faces resulted in two mirror-like activations in the striate cortex corresponding to the symmetric layout of the left and right perspectives. Viewing the left face resulted additionally in an enhanced activation also in the left extrastriate cortex. The right perspective of male faces elicited a lower activation compared to other perspectives in face-selective areas of the brain. Our findings suggest that the preference of the left three-quarter face emerges already in the early visual pathway presumably prior to facial identification, emotional processing, and aesthetic appreciation. Our observations may have general importance in disentangling different neural components and processing stages in the spatiotemporal characteristics of artistic expressions.

Suddenly safe: Processing of conflicting feedback in assisted driving.

Based on a conceptual model of operational anticipation, we propose an experimental paradigm for assisted car driving. In a pilot study, unpredicted negative outcomes, but not ambiguous intermediate feedback with positive outcomes, led to reduced feeling of safety and heightened brain activations in left anterior insular cortex attributable to error awareness.

Aesthetics as a common denominator for moral and commercial judgments.

Using fMRI, a core evaluation mechanism was found for aesthetic judgments with add-on neural activities for moral and commercial judgments. We propose that aesthetic evaluations serve as a basic core mechanism implicitly for moral and commercial judgments.

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.

Shared temptations: An fMRI study of dishonest profit maximization.

A single case of a tempting-decision task involving financial gain is reported. The subject showed a prosocial Social Value Orientation and applied a profit-maximizing strategy. Differential brain activation patterns for self-serving and other-serving decisions were observed. Results provide new insight into the design of paradigms on bounded ethicality and self- and group-serving behavior.

Does a bishop pray when he prays? And does his brain distinguish between different religions?

Does a religion shape belief-related decisions and influence neural processing? We investigated an eminent bishop of the Catholic Church in Germany by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess neural processing while he was responding to short sentences of the Christian Bible, the Islamic Quran, and the Daodejing ascribed to Laozi in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, continuous praying was further compared to the resting state activity. In contrast to explicit statements of agreeing or not agreeing to different statements from the Bible and the Quran, we found in Experiment 1 no difference in neural activation when the bishop was reading these statements from the two religions. However, compared to reading statements from the Bible, reading statements from the Daodejing resulted in significantly higher activation in the left inferior and middle frontal cortices and the left middle temporal gyrus, although he equally agreed to both statements explicitly. In Experiment 2, no difference during continuous praying and the resting state activity was observed. Our results confirm the difference between explicit and implicit processing, and they suggest that a highly religious person may pray always-or never. On a more general level this observation suggests that ritualized activities might be subliminally represented in resting state activities.