Stimulation of the human periaqueductal gray induces threat bradycardia: a case report The ability to recognize and anticipate potential danger is crucial for survival across species. The midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG) is implicated in regulating threat-anticipatory responses, in...

🧠 Congrats @felixklaassen.bsky.social with this unique DBS case study targeting the midbrain PAG. Direct PAG stimulation (and not a bordering control region) induces threat-specific bradycardia ❤️ @devoogdld.bsky.social @anneloeshulsman.bsky.social & co-authors www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

1/6 Our paper is out today in Nature Communications!

From the SFB/TRR 289 Treatment Expectation @sfb-trr-289.bsky.social we show that temporal expectations shape somatosensory perception - for both painful heat AND non-painful cold stimuli.

Milestone for FND care in Germany: first guideline on functional motor disorder, published by German Neurol. Society. I contributed to comorbidities, pharmacotherapy & placebo/nocebo. Hope it's a valuable resource for clinicians & support people living with FND.
register.awmf.org/de/leitlinie...

Sensory sharpening and semantic prediction errors unify competing models of predictive processing in human speech comprehension Speech comprehension relies on predictive mechanisms, but models disagree on whether the brain prioritizes expected or unexpected information. This study shows that sharpening of sensory representatio...

Same sound, different perception: Do expectations change what you hear?👂🧠

We paired faces w topics and played the same ambiguous speech w different faces. The brain sharpened sensory signals toward predictions and showed gated prediction errors at higher levels.

Read @plosbiology.org. Blueprint👇

A 2024 study found that ants best humans at tests of collective intelligence.

Learn more: https://scim.ag/42nMvQJ #ScienceMagArchives

Controllability changes pain perception by increasing the precision of expectations Nature Communications - Control over pain changes how intense it is perceived. Here, the authors show that this effect results from increased expectation precision with control, which changes...

Excited to share that the main work of my PhD has been published!

We found that having control over pain makes expectations more precise, and changes pain perception. This is accompanied by activation changes in the PAG, SMA and ACC.

You can read the full version of the paper here: rdcu.be/eQy6X

Criminal risk behavior can be an early sign of dementia - raising important clinical and legal questions.

Excited to share the findings from our meta-analysis: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ultra-high-field fMRI reveals layer-specific responses in the human spinal cord Developments in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at ultra-high field (UHF) now allow for insights into human brain function at mesoscopic scale. However, similar progress has not been achi...

I am thrilled about this new preprint of ours! Using 7T fMRI of the spinal cord we uncover two different spinal response components – phasic and tonic heat responses – that map differentially onto superficial and deep layers of the dorsal horn! 🔥Long thread upcoming!🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

legs of runners

Exercise can reduce pain. But you don’t have to just work out harder to feel the benefit. New research suggests that fitness level and sex may play a bigger role than exercise intensity in how we experience exercise-induced pain relief.
buff.ly/6oo87SW

Major news!
Exhaustive metaanalysis (N=2706) finding that endogenous opioids play a MINOR role in human pain regulation:
Consistent with 0.3 on 11-point VAS

By @isabellmeier.bsky.social @martintrostheim.bsky.social @marieeikemo.bsky.social @loseth.bsky.social et al

Thread 👇
osf.io/preprints/os...

May et al. find that the relationship between peak alpha frequency and pain does not generalize to brief experimental pain calling for a systematic exploration across different pain types. Learn more in #PAIN bit.ly/3Hmxszm

Kann KI in der Medizin Leben retten, Simon Hofmann? Der Neurowissenschaftler Simon Hofmann untersucht, wie künstliche Intelligenz in der Medizin zum Einsatz kommen kann.

Hilft künstliche Intelligenz bei der #Demenz - Diagnose? Simon Hofmann @mpicbs.bsky.social erklärt im neuen #AchMensch Podcast, wie sich Ärzte in Zukunft durch #KI unterstützen lassen können und woran der Einsatz bislang scheitert detektor.fm/wissen/ach-m... #Medizin #Gehirn @detektorfm.bsky.social

important, please give this a read!

Hubschmid et al. find that monetary rewards increase sensory signal strength leading to enhanced pain discrimination. Mechanistically, this process seems to be driven by learning from positive prediction errors. Learn more in #PAIN bit.ly/4lWzNjb