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The Journal of Neuroscience, April 15, 2009, 29(15):4882-4887; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5634-08.2009

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Brief Communications
The Anatomy of the Mesolimbic Reward System: A Link between Personality and the Placebo Analgesic Response

Petra Schweinhardt,¹ David A. Seminowicz,¹ Erik Jaeger,¹ Gary H. Duncan,² and M. Catherine Bushnell¹

¹Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, Faculty of Dentistry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A2B2, and ²Département de Stomatologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3T 1J4

Correspondence should be addressed to Petra Schweinhardt, Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University, Room M/19, Strathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building, 3640 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2B2. Email: petra.schweinhardt{at}mcgill.ca

The anticipation of clinical benefit, a crucial component of placebo analgesia, has been suggested to be a special case of reward anticipation. Since reward processing is closely linked to the ventral striatum and the neurotransmitter dopamine, we examined the relationships between brain gray matter, placebo analgesic response, and personality traits associated with dopaminergic neurotransmission. We report that dopamine-related traits predict a substantial portion of the pain relief an individual gains from a sham treatment. Voxel-based morphometry of magnetic resonance images shows that the magnitude of placebo analgesia is related to gray matter density (GMD) in several brain regions, including the ventral striatum, insula, and prefrontal cortex. Similarly, GMD in ventral striatum and prefrontal cortex is related to dopamine-related personality traits. Our findings highlight the relationship between placebo and reward and potentially offer ways of identifying subjects who are likely to show large placebo analgesic responses.

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Received Nov. 10, 2008; revised March 9, 2009; accepted March 16, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Petra Schweinhardt, Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University, Room M/19, Strathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building, 3640 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2B2. Email: petra.schweinhardt{at}mcgill.ca

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