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The Warmth, Anticipation, Sensation, Aversion, and Body-part Imaging Study

NCT04653064 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 150

Last updated 2026-01-14

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This functional magnetic-resonance imaging study of the brain will feature a within-subject crossover design to investigate the effects of a placebo cream on painful thermal stimulation rendered upon eight body sites. The investigators aim to 1.) improve the understanding of how the brain represents thermal pain responses somatotopically (i.e., across different body-sites) 2.) to test these brain representations with and without the presence of a pain-targeted placebo intervention, and 3.) to examine how these brain representations change prior to vs. during the delivery of thermal pain. They predict that placebo cream will downregulate the intensity of aversive brain activity representations, and to a lesser degree, sensation and somatotopic representations, both prior to and during painful thermal stimulation.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Placebo Cream

Approximately 1 teaspoon of exfoliating skin scrub delivered approximately 5 minutes prior to pain tasks will coincide with verbal descriptors of the cream as being analgesic.

BEHAVIORAL

Control Cream

Approximately 1 teaspoon of exfoliating skin scrub delivered approximately 5 minutes prior to pain tasks will coincide with verbal descriptors of the cream as one of no effect.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Trustees of Dartmouth College

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Tor D Wager, PhD · Dartmouth College

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2021-03-19
Primary Completion
2026-02-26
Completion
2026-12-26

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT04653064 on ClinicalTrials.gov