Conditioning and Extinction Learning of Visceral Pain in Human

参与体内感觉加工的学习和记忆机制可能与阐明功能性躯体疾病的病理生理学有关。我们使用经典的条件反射范式和机械食道刺激，研究了联想学习和对内脏疼痛的习得反应的修改过程中的大脑处理。使用内脏疼痛的条件反射(CR)在没有身体内脏疼痛的情况下产生类似于实际内脏疼痛时发生的神经反应。额叶皮质活动可能在消退学习调节获得性认知障碍中起重要作用。海马区的激活可能与CR消退后的记忆恢复有关。这些发现阐明了内脏疼痛的厌恶记忆如何根据环境变化而改变的大脑机制。

Learning and memory mechanisms involved in the processing of internal bodily sensations may be relevant for elucidating the pathophysiology of functional somatic diseases. We investigated brain processing during associative learning and modification of the learned response to visceral pain using a classical conditioning paradigm and mechanical oesophageal stimulation. Conditioning responses (CR) using visceral pain produced a neural response in the absence of physical visceral pain similar to that occurs during actual visceral pain. Frontal cortex activity may play an important role in extinction learning to regulate acquired CR. The activation in the hippocampus may be associated with memory retrieval of CR after extinction. These findings elucidate the brain mechanism underlying how aversive memory of visceral pain is modified depending on circumstantial change.