Art perception is affected by negative knowledge about famous and unknown artists.

The biographies of some celebrated artists are marked by accounts that paint a far from beautiful portrait. Does this negative-social knowledge influence the aesthetic experience of an artwork? Does an artist's fame protect their paintings from such an influence? We present two preregistered experiments examining the effect of social-emotional biographical knowledge about famous and unknown artists on the reception and perception of their paintings, using aesthetic ratings and neurocognitive measures. In Experiment 1, paintings attributed to artists characterised by negative biographical information were liked less, evoked greater feelings of arousal and were judged lower in terms of quality, than paintings by artists associated with neutral information.

Separating art from the artist: The effect of negative affective knowledge on ERPs and aesthetic experience.

Some artists do terrible things. But does knowing something bad about an artist affect the way we perceive the work? Despite increased public interest, this question has yet to be addressed empirically. In this pre-registered study, we used aesthetic ratings and electrophysiological brain responses to shed light on the issue.

Safety and efficacy of prednisone versus placebo in short-term prevention of episodic cluster headache: a multicentre, double-blind, randomised controlled trial.

Background: Prednisone is commonly used for initial short-term therapy of episodic cluster headaches before preventive medication such as verapamil becomes effective, but this strategy has not been tested in large randomised trials. We aimed to access the safety and efficacy of this treatment approach.

Methods: This study was a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial done in ten specialised headache centres in Germany.

Is Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction a Promising and Feasible Intervention for Patients Suffering from Migraine? A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial.

Aim: We performed a pilot study in order to evaluate the feasibility and to estimate effect sizes of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in a sample of patients suffering from migraine.

Method: Migraine patients (n = 62, mean age 44 years, 92% female) were randomly allocated to either MBSR or an active control intervention based on progressive muscle relaxation and psychoeducation. The primary outcome was the number of migraine days per month assessed by headache diaries covering one month before and one month after the intervention.

Nociception-specific blink reflex: pharmacology in healthy volunteers.

Background: The physiology and pharmacology of activation or perception of activation of pain-coding trigeminovascular afferents in humans is fundamental to understanding the biology of headache and developing new treatments.

Methods: The blink reflex was elicited using a concentric electrode and recorded in four separate sessions, at baseline and two minutes after administration of ramped doses of diazepam (final dose 0.07 mg/kg), fentanyl (final dose 1.