Project A11 will investigate neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying the acquisition, extinction and reinstatement of pain-related fear in the context of somatic pain. We will compare patients suffering from chronic low back pain to healthy controls using a differential fear conditioning paradigm with painful heat as unconditioned stimuli (US) while collecting behavioral, physiological, neuroendocrine and neural data (MRI). The planned studies will examine (1) pain-specific aspects of fear conditioning, (2) the effects of pharmacologically induced stress on extinction recall and reinstatement and (3) neural common and distinct neural mechanisms underlying appetitive and aversive conditioning in the context of somatic pain.
Guiding questions of A11:
Claassen J, Koenen LR, Ernst TM, Labrenz F, Theysohn N, Forsting M, Bingel U, Timmann D, Elsenbruch S (2020) Cerebellum is more concerned about visceral than somatic pain. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 91(2): 218–219.
Eippert F, Bingel U, Schoell E, Yacubian J, Büchel C (2008) Blockade of endogenous opioid neurotransmission enhances acquisition of conditioned fear in humans. J Neurosci. 28(21): 5465–5472.
Ernst TM, Brol AE, Gratz M, Ritter C, Bingel U, Schlamann M, Maderwald S, Quick HH, Merz CJ, Timmann D (2019) The cerebellum is involved in processing of predictions and prediction errors in a fear conditioning paradigm. eLife. 8.
Forkmann K, Wiech K, Ritter C, Sommer T, Rose M, Bingel U (2013) Pain-specific modulation of hippocampal activity and functional connectivity during visual encoding. J Neurosci. 33(6): 2571–2581.
Forkmann K, Wiech K, Sommer T, Bingel U (2015) Reinstatement of pain-related brain activation during the recognition of neutral images previously paired with nociceptive stimuli. Pain. 156(8): 1501–1510.
Koenen LR, Icenhour A, Forkmann K, Theysohn N, Forsting M, Bingel U, Elsenbruch S (2018) From Anticipation to the Experience of Pain: The Importance of Visceral Versus Somatic Pain Modality in Neural and Behavioral Responses to Pain-Predictive Cues. Psychosom Med. 80(9): 826–835.
Schmidt K, Forkmann K, Sinke C, Gratz M, Bitz A, Bingel U (2016) The differential effect of trigeminal vs. peripheral pain stimulation on visual processing and memory encoding is influenced by pain-related fear. NeuroImage. 134: 386–395.
Schmidt K, Forkmann K, Elsenbruch S, Bingel U (2020) Enhanced pain-related conditioning for face compared to hand pain. PLoS One. 15(6): e0234160.
Schmidt K, Forkmann K, Schultz H, Gratz M, Bitz A, Wiech K, Bingel U (2019) Enhanced Neural Reinstatement for Evoked Facial Pain Compared With Evoked Hand Pain. J Pain. 20(9): 1057–1069.
Spisák T, Kincses B, Schlitt F, Zunhammer M, Schmidt-Wilcke T, Kincses ZT, Bingel U (2020) Pain-free resting-state functional brain connectivity predicts individual pain sensitivity. Nat Commun. 11(1): 187.