My research focuses on the interface between pain processing of the central nervous system and cognitive neuroscience. A major interest is the neurobiology of pain. Specifically, my group studies the underlying mechanisms of an individual’s pain sensitivity, susceptibility for pain chronification and ability to modulate pain under distinct contextual circumstances. My group investigates these mechanisms using functional and structural brain imaging in combination with pharmacological and psychophysical approaches in healthy volunteers and in patient groups suffering from chronic pain or neurological disorders frequently associated with pain, such as Parkinson’s Disease. As part of this research focus my group also investigates the detrimental effects of acute and chronic pain on cognitive processes which represents a major complaint in patients suffering from pain. By using fMRI I have revealed underlying neural mechanisms of this “interruptive effect of pain” as well as mediating and moderating variables.

Another strand of research is dedicated to study the neurobiological mechanisms of placebo- and nocebo responses and their contribution to active medical treatments. My work has revealed critical insights into the contribution of pain modulatory mechanisms involving endogenous opioidergic activity in the descending pain modulatory system to placebo analgesia. As part of this research, I have also used spinal cord fMRI to show that these cognitively triggered top-down mechanisms even impact nociceptive information processing at the level of the dorsal horn of the spinal cord.

Recently, my group has moved on to study the contribution placebo mechanisms (expectation and associative learning) to the efficacy and tolerability of active pharmacological treatments.