Psychosomatic pain: neurobiological aspects

Authors

  • Johann Caspar Rüegg

Abstract

Psychosomatic pain may be related to mental or social stress but may also result from traumatic experience stored in the pain memory. It usually correlates with neuronal activity in the so-called pain matrix of the limbic system (particularly the anterior cingulate) rather than with nervous activity originating in C-fibres and nociceptors. Significantly, pain as well as neuronal activity in the cingulate may be modified by cognitive factors such as attention or distraction but also by operant conditioning involving “neurofeedback” guided by real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging. Given certain psychosocial rewards learning by operant conditioning may therefore well be involved in, and (partly) account for, the aggravation and chronification of psychosomatic pain as well as for alterations in the pain matrix that are often observed in patients suffering from chronic backache.

Keywords Psychosomatic pain; Placebo; Neurofeedback; Pain memory; Anterior cingulate

Author Biography

Johann Caspar Rüegg

Prof. Dr. med. Johann Caspar Rüegg, Ph. D., promovierte 1955 in Zürich beim Hirnforscher W. R. Hess. Bis zu seiner Emeritierung (1998) leitete er das 2. Physiologische Institut der Universität Heidelberg. Seither freiberuflicher Buchautor (Gehirn, Psyche und Körper: Neurobiologie von Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie, 4. Aufl., 2007).

Korrespondenz: Haagackerweg 10,
69493 Hirschberg, Deutschland

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Published

2008-01-01

How to Cite

Rüegg, J. C. (2008). Psychosomatic pain: neurobiological aspects. Psychotherapie-Wissenschaft, (1), 15–21. Retrieved from https://psychotherapie-wissenschaft.info/article/view/99

Issue

No. 1 (2008): Psychotherapie Forum 16/1 (veröffentlicht bei Springer Wien New York)

Section

Special Issue

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