Conditioning and Extinction Learning of Visceral Pain in Human

参与内部身体感觉处理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。我们研究了大脑处理过程中的联想学习和修改的学习反应，内脏疼痛使用经典的条件反射范例和机械食管刺激。条件反射（CR）使用内脏痛产生的神经反应，在没有身体内脏痛类似于发生在实际内脏痛。额叶皮层活动可能在消退学习中起重要作用，调节获得性CR。海马的激活可能与CR消退后的记忆提取有关。这些发现阐明了内脏痛的厌恶记忆是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.