It's not all in your head: Descending neural mechanisms of placebo-induced pain control

A new study reveals that when it comes to pain control, the 'placebo effect' involves evolutionarily old pain control pathways in the human brainstem, the part of the brain that is continuous with the spinal cord. The research, published by Cell Press in the August 27th issue of the journal Neuron, provides fascinating mechanistic insight into how and why simply expecting that a treatment will reduce pain can act as an effective analgesic...

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