Katja Wiech
My research focuses on the influence of beliefs on the perception of pain. These beliefs can be related to various aspects – pain itself, one’s ability to cope with it or conditions that can influence the two. A prime example of this influence is placebo analgesia, i.e. pain reduction following sham treatment that is induced by the expectation of pain relief.
Although the influence of beliefs on pain has been known for a long time, surprisingly little is known about its underlying mechanisms in the brain. Insights into the neural basis of this influence could aid in exploiting this powerful mechanism in a systematic way to open up new avenues for the prevention and treatment of pain, but also for a wider range of chronic health conditions, for which pain can be seen as a prototype.
In my research I use a multi-methods approach combining different non-invasive neuroimaging techniques including functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with behavioral and autonomic measures. In previous studies I have shown that beliefs can engage powerful brain mechanisms that can aggravate as well as alleviate pain. At present, I aim to characterize the process that integrates beliefs with incoming sensory information and the failure of optimal integration in biased perception. With my background in Experimental and Clinical Psychology I seeks to translate my basic research into clinical pain to make the findings available to the prevention and treatment of chronic pain.
Key publications
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Flexible cerebral connectivity patterns subserve contextual modulations of pain.
Journal article
Ploner M. et al, (2011), Cereb Cortex, 21, 719 - 726
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The effect of treatment expectation on drug efficacy: imaging the analgesic benefit of the opioid remifentanil.
Journal article
Bingel U. et al, (2011), Sci Transl Med, 3
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Prestimulus functional connectivity determines pain perception in humans.
Journal article
Ploner M. et al, (2010), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 107, 355 - 360
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Anterior insula integrates information about salience into perceptual decisions about pain.
Journal article
Wiech K. et al, (2010), J Neurosci, 30, 16324 - 16331
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An fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system.
Journal article
Wiech K. et al, (2008), Pain, 139, 467 - 476
Recent publications
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Open-label placebo treatment does not enhance cognitive abilities in healthy volunteers.
Journal article
Hartmann H. et al, (2023), Sci Rep, 13
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Alzheimer disease may compromise patients' ability for expectancy-based pain modulation. Now what?
Journal article
Wiech K. and Bingel U., (2023), Pain
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Trait anxiety is associated with hidden state inference during aversive reversal learning.
Journal article
Zika O. et al, (2023), Nat Commun, 14
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Neural underpinnings of preferential pain learning and the modulatory role of fear
Journal article
Forkmann K. et al, (2023), Cerebral Cortex
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Same but different: how agency modulates pain perception.
Other
Wiech K., (2023), Trends Cogn Sci, 27, 601 - 602