OSCR

Placebo analgesia persistence: evaluating behavioural stability in repeated trials.

Overview

Authors: Lewis S Crawford1,2, Damien C Boorman1,2, Ashleigh H Wake1,2, Allan Peng1,2, Rebecca V Robertson1,2, James W M Kang1,2, Furby Robson1,2, Paul M Macey3, Kevin A Keay1,2, Luke A Henderson1,2
ORCID iDs: Lewis S Crawford, Ashleigh H Wake, Rebecca V Robertson, James W M Kang, Paul M Macey, Kevin A Keay, Luke A Henderson
  1. School of Medical Sciences (Neuroscience), University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW Australia
  2. Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW Australia
  3. School of Nursing and Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA USA
Institutions: The University of Sydney (Australia); University of California, Los Angeles (United States)
Journal: Communications biology, volume 9, issue 1, article 1133
Dates: received 8 February 2026; accepted 14 May 2026; published online 28 May 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1038/s42003-026-10377-8 · PMID 42209674 · PMCID PMC13500666 · OpenAlex W7162662651
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: code on request
Categories: structural MRI / diffusion (modality), human (organism), pain (population), clinical / translational (subfield)
Methods: Statistics, Smoothing, state filtering, decompositions, Preprocessing, fMRI & imaging
Keywords: Sensory processing, Pain
MeSH: Analgesia*, Placebo Effect*, Adult, Brain, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male (* major topic)
Topic: Pain Management and Placebo Effect (Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: Department of Health | National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (1130280)
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 63 references in the paper

Abstract

Placebo analgesia is widely believed to rely on psychological, genetic, and biological factors. Whilst these factors have been assessed in single expressions of this phenomenon, few have documented its consistency over time, limiting understanding of its stability, and by extension, consideration in non-experimental settings. Here we show in 30 control participants by combining magnetic resonance imaging and a longitudinal design spanning five sessions, the psychological and neural substrates underpinning Placebo Analgesia response consistency.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.

Code availability

All code required to generate the findings of this study are available through public download of MATLAB Version 2023a and listed toolboxes found within the 'Method' section, Statistical Parametric Mapping Version 12, MRIcroGL and Graphpad Prism version 10.1.2.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none (its code is available on request), so it has no map.

Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data availability

Raw and coded behavioural, psychological and both main effect and responder-specific effect functional imaging cluster data supporting these findings can be found in the associated Supplementary Data Excel document. Further data are available from the corresponding author (LAH), upon reasonable request.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 28 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 10 authors, 2 keywords, 8 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 62 references.

Cite

This paper

Crawford, L. S., Boorman, D. C., Wake, A. H., Peng, A., Robertson, R. V., Kang, J. W. M., Robson, F., Macey, P. M., Keay, K. A., & Henderson, L. A. (2026). Placebo analgesia persistence: evaluating behavioural stability in repeated trials. Communications biology, 9(1), 1133. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10377-8

BibTeX

@article{crawford2026placebo,
author = {Crawford, Lewis S and Boorman, Damien C and Wake, Ashleigh H and Peng, Allan and Robertson, Rebecca V and Kang, James W M and Robson, Furby and Macey, Paul M and Keay, Kevin A and Henderson, Luke A},
title = {{Placebo analgesia persistence: evaluating behavioural stability in repeated trials}},
journal = {Communications biology},
year = {2026},
month = may,
volume = {9},
number = {1},
pages = {1133},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
issn = {2399-3642},
doi = {10.1038/s42003-026-10377-8},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10377-8},
pmid = {42209674},
pmcid = {PMC13500666}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Crawford, Lewis S
AU - Boorman, Damien C
AU - Wake, Ashleigh H
AU - Peng, Allan
AU - Robertson, Rebecca V
AU - Kang, James W M
AU - Robson, Furby
AU - Macey, Paul M
AU - Keay, Kevin A
AU - Henderson, Luke A
TI - Placebo analgesia persistence: evaluating behavioural stability in repeated trials
T2 - Communications biology
J2 - Commun Biol
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/28
VL - 9
IS - 1
SP - 1133
SN - 2399-3642
PB - Nature Publishing Group
DO - 10.1038/s42003-026-10377-8
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10377-8
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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