Molecular and functional PET-fMRI measures of placebo analgesia in episodic migraine: Preliminary findings.

Pain interventions with no active ingredient, placebo, are sometimes effective in treating chronic pain conditions. Prior studies on the neurobiological underpinnings of placebo analgesia indicate endogenous opioid release and changes in brain responses and functional connectivity during pain anticipation and pain experience in healthy subjects. Here, we investigated placebo analgesia in healthy subjects and in interictal migraine patients (n = 9) and matched healthy controls (n = 9) using C-diprenoprhine Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and simultaneous functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

Parental Attitudes About Placebo Use in Children.

Objective: To assess parental attitudes regarding placebo use in pediatric randomized controlled trials and clinical care.

Study Design: Parents with children under age 18 years living in the US completed and submitted an online survey between September and November 2014.

Results: Among all 1300 participants, 1000 (76.

Short separation regression improves statistical significance and better localizes the hemodynamic response obtained by near-infrared spectroscopy for tasks with differing autonomic responses.

Autonomic nervous system response is known to be highly task-dependent. The sensitivity of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) measurements to superficial layers, particularly to the scalp, makes it highly susceptible to systemic physiological changes. Thus, one critical step in NIRS data processing is to remove the contribution of superficial layers to the NIRS signal and to obtain the actual brain response.

Anatomical guidance for functional near-infrared spectroscopy: AtlasViewer tutorial.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an optical imaging method that is used to noninvasively measure cerebral hemoglobin concentration changes induced by brain activation. Using structural guidance in fNIRS research enhances interpretation of results and facilitates making comparisons between studies. AtlasViewer is an open-source software package we have developed that incorporates multiple spatial registration tools to enable structural guidance in the interpretation of fNIRS studies.