All in the mind: what the placebo effect looks like in the brain

Expectations sway perceptions of pain: people who take a pill that they think is a painkiller often report relief, even if the pill was just a sugar tablet. Scientists have long known about this ‘placebo effect’ and its inverse, the nocebo effect, which heightens pain if a person anticipates that something will hurt. But the biological basis of these responses has remained elusive.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02939-z

Subjects