How placebo responses are formed: a learning perspective
Open accessAbstract
Despite growing scientific interest in the placebo effect and increasing understanding of neurobiological mechanisms, theoretical conceptualization of the placebo effect remains poorly developed. Substantial mechanistic research on this phenomenon has proceeded with little guidance by any systematic theoretical paradigm. This review seeks to present a theoretical perspective on the formation of placebo responses. We focus on information processing, and argue that different kinds of learning along with individuals' genetic make-up evolved as the proximate cause for triggering behavioural and neural mechanisms that enable the formation of individual expectations and placebo responses. Conceptualizing the placebo effect in terms of learning offers the opportunity for facilitating scientific investigation with a significant impact on medical care.
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Because expectations of low pain are more easily extinguished and more sensitive to sensory evidence, the positive PE condition was more vulnerable to an unmeasured variable than the negative PE condition.
“It is plausible that because expectations of low pain are more easily extinguished and more sensitive to sensory evidence18–21, the corresponding positive PE condition was more vulnerable to an unmeasured variable than the negative PE condition.”
From Boundary effects of expectation in human pain perception (2019) · cites this paper as [21]
Section 4 (page unavailable) says sensory feedback can grade expectations of pain relief and that learning history affects resistance to extinction of both placebo and nocebo responses. It does not say that expectations of low pain extinguish more easily or are more sensitive to sensory evidence than expectations of high pain. The positive-PE condition’s vulnerability to an unmeasured variable is the citing authors’ speculation, not a finding attributed to this source. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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References 86 · Cited by 323
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [21]Siegel S. 2002. Explanatory mechanisms for placebo effects—Pavlovian conditioning. In The science of the placebo: toward an interdisciplanary research agenda (eds Guess H. A., Kleinman A., Kusek J. W., Engel L. W.), pp. 133–157 London, UK: BMJ Books [Google Scholar]
- Authors
- Colloca, L., & Miller, F. G.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Colloca, Luana
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2011-06-27
- Volume
- 366
- Issue
- 1572
- Pages
- 1859-1869
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC3130403
- OpenAlex
- W2096416725
- Cited by
- 323
- References
- 86
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 1.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Free Will and Agency
- Keywords
- placebo effect, placebo response, learning, information processing, expectations, genetic susceptibility, behavioral mechanisms, neural mechanisms, theoretical conceptualization
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Learning, Models, Psychological, Research Design, Signal Transduction, Placebo Effect
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