Study Sheds Light on How Placebos Ease Pain

Researchers unearth a brain circuit involved in pain relief that could lead to novel type of drug

We have all heard stories about people who take sugar pills as a placebo and imagine they make them feel better.

Experts think they have hit on the biological mechanism behind this phenomenon. In experiments in mice, neuroscientists from Harvard have identified a circuit in the part of the brain typically associated with movement and coordination that became active during a placebo experiment.

Live imaging tools shows a group of neurons remained active during the experiment that were located in an area of the brainstem that connects the cerebral cortex with the cerebellum. The findings, published this week in the journal Nature, could lead to new drugs as well as shed light on why some pain therapies work.

Check out the article in Nature to learn more about this study.