placebo effect

11.23.09

Placebo Effect's Neural Activity Photographed for First Time

Researchers used fMRI scans to spot the placebo effect at work in specific spinal cord cells

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 10.16.2009 at 4:51 pm 6 Comments

Medicine has increasingly looked to the placebo effect's seemingly mysterious power to make people feel better in the absence of painkillers or pharmaceutical drugs. Now researchers have used fMRI scanners to pinpoint specific cells in the spinal cord that they believe are responsible for this ability to deaden pain.

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READ MORE ABOUT > brain scans, fmri, health, MRI, pain relief, painkillers, placebo, placebo effect, spinal cord

Placebo v. Placebo

Price and our sense of value add another dimension to the placebo question

By Matt Ransford Posted 03.10.2008 at 3:58 pm 0 Comments

The Placebo Effect: Our sense of pricing contributes to our perception of a medicine's effectiveness. iStockphoto

I have a friend who once posted a perfectly good 23-inch Sony television on craigslist for free. Over the course of two days, four people committed to pick it up, only to cancel at the last minute. On the third day, he re-listed it for $50 and it was gone within the hour. Same television, higher price. What were people thinking? When faced with the same product at different prices, the less expensive is deemed to be inferior. The same thing happens with prescription drugs, and as MIT researchers found, it even works with pills that do nothing at all.

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READ MORE ABOUT > Matt Ransford, placebo effect, placebos