Cognitive modulation of pain and predictive coding Comment on 'Facing the experience of pain: A neuropsychological perspective' by Fabbro and Crescentini

摘要

Pain is a phenomenologically complex experience whose sensory and psychological dimensions are deeply intertwined. In their perspective article, Fabbro and Crescentini [1] review the physiological and neural mechanisms underlying nociception and its cognitive modulation within the broader concept of suffering, which includes psychological pain [2] in its culturally mediated and existentially nuanced forms. The tight link between affective and cognitive processes, on the one hand, and pain, on the other, is illustrated by examining in turn the placebo effect, empathy for other people's afflictions, clinical depression, and the role that mindfulness-based practices may play in alleviating suffering.