Health

What causes chronic pain? A new study identifies a key culprit

Lisa Marshall — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 23:49:09 +0000

What causes chronic pain? A new study identifies a key culprit Lisa Marshall Tue, 01/27/2026 - 16:49

Lisa Marshall

A neural circuit hidden in an understudied region of the brain plays a critical role in turning temporary pain into pain that can last months or years, according to new �鶹��Ѱ�� research.

The animal study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, found that silencing this pathway, known as the caudal granular insular cortex (CGIC), can prevent or halt chronic pain.

“Our paper used a variety of state-of-the art methods to define the specific brain circuit crucial for deciding for pain to become chronic and telling the spinal cord to carry out this instruction,” said senior author Linda Watkins, distinguished professor of behavioral neuroscience in the College of Arts and Sciences. “If this crucial decision maker is silenced, chronic pain does not occur. If it is already ongoing, chronic pain melts away.”

The study comes amid what first author Jayson Ball calls a “gold rush of neuroscience.”

With new tools enabling them to genetically manipulate precise populations of brain cells, neuroscientists are now able to identify, with unprecedented granularity, potential targets for new therapies. Such therapies, including infusions or brain-machine interfaces, could someday provide safer and more effective alternatives to opioids.

“This study adds an important leaf to the tree of knowledge about chronic pain,” said Ball, who earned his doctorate in Watkins’ lab in May and now works for Neuralink, a California-based startup that develops brain-machine interfaces for human health.

When touch hurts

About one in four adults have chronic pain, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and nearly one in 10 people say chronic pain interferes with their daily life and work.

Those with nerve-related pain often suffer from a condition called allodynia, an extreme sensitivity in which even light touch hurts.

Acute and chronic pain work differently. Acute pain serves as a temporary warning sign, initiated when an injured tissue—like a stubbed toe—sends a signal to the spinal cord and onward to the brain’s pain center. Chronic pain is more like a false alarm, in which pain signals persist in the brain for weeks, months or years after the initial tissue injury has healed.

“Why, and how, pain fails to resolve, leaving you in chronic pain, is a major question that is still in search of answers,” said Watkins.

In 2011, Watkins’ lab published a study suggesting that the CGIC—a sugar-cube-sized cluster of cells hidden deep within the folds of a portion of the human brain called the insula—plays an important role in allodynia. Human studies have also shown that chronic pain patients have an over-active CGIC.

But for a long time, the only way to manipulate the CGIC was to remove it—an impractical approach for human treatments.

For the new study, the team used novel fluorescent proteins to observe which cells in the central nervous system light up when a rat sustains a sciatic nerve injury. The team then used cutting-edge “chemogenetic” tools to switch on or off genes inside specific populations of neurons.

The researchers discovered that while the CGIC plays a minimal role in processing acute pain, it plays a vital role in making pain persist.

According to the study, the CGIC signals the brain’s pain processing center, or somatosensory cortex, which in turn tells the spinal cord to keep the pain going.

“We found that activating this pathway excites the part of the spinal cord that relays touch and pain to the brain, causing touch to now be perceived as pain, as well,” said Ball.

Disabling the chronic pain circuit

When the team turned off cells within this pathway immediately after injury, the rat’s pain from injury was short-lived. In animals already experiencing chronic allodynia, disabling this pathway made the pain cease.

“Our research presents a clear case that specific brain pathways can be directly targeted to modulate sensory pain,” said Ball.

It’s still unclear what prompts the CGIC to start sending chronic pain signals. And more research is necessary before these lessons learned could be applied to help humans.

But Ball imagines a not-too-distant future in which medical professionals treat pain with injections or infusions that target specific brain cells without the systemic side effects and dependency risk that come with opioids. He also believes brain-machine interfaces, either implanted in or attached to the skull, could play a similar role in treating severe chronic pain. Numerous startups are now rushing to get to market first, he said.

“Now that we have access to tools that allow you to manipulate the brain, not based just on a general region but on specific sub-populations of cells, the quest for new treatments is moving much faster,” he said. “I’m betting my career that in the near future we are going to see amazing medical uses for these technologies.”

New research shows that a little-known brain pathway plays a critical role in making pain last after tissue heals. The findings could help pave the way for new brain-machine interfaces and medications that ease suffering without the use of opioids.

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�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder joins Medtronic in strategic partnership to drive breakthrough health innovations

Megan M Rogers — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 21:06:29 +0000

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder joins Medtronic in strategic partnership to drive breakthrough health innovations Megan M Rogers Thu, 01/22/2026 - 14:06

The University of Colorado (CU) and Medtronic, a global leader in health care technology, have entered into a strategic research agreement to accelerate the development of transformative health technologies. �鶹��Ѱ��was selected from a nationwide search for its strength in advancing disruptive innovation.

“This is an incredible collaboration across the breakthrough innovation ecosystem at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, clinical excellence at �鶹��Ѱ��Anschutz, and enhancements in patient care delivered by Medtronic,” said Bryn Rees, associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. “We are excited to contribute to improving health care through this university-industry alliance."

The long-term partnership will focus on artificial intelligence, robotics and sustainability, aiming to move technologies from lab to bedside faster and deliver real benefits to patients worldwide. The collaboration spans �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, �鶹��Ѱ��Anschutz and �鶹��Ѱ��Denver, leveraging each campus’s unique expertise.

“Together, we will explore new frontiers critical to the future of health care,” said Jim Peichel, chief technology officer at Medtronic.

The alliance launched at a summit on the �鶹��Ѱ��Anschutz campus, where priority research projects were identified. �鶹��Ѱ��Anschutz brings deep clinical research capabilities, while �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder contributes cutting-edge innovation and entrepreneurial strength.

Learn more about �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s innovation initiatives.

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder and two other �鶹��Ѱ��campuses have been chosen from a nationwide search to partner with Medtronic—a global leader in health care technology—in a strategic research agreement aimed at accelerating transformative health innovations.

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Donated blood has a shelf life. A new test tracks how it's aging

Daniel William Strain — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 22:15:37 +0000

Donated blood has a shelf life. A new test tracks how it's aging Daniel William… Wed, 01/21/2026 - 15:15

Daniel Strain

A new, fast and easy test could revolutionize blood transfusions—giving blood centers and hospitals a reliable way to monitor the quality of red blood cells after they sit for weeks in storage.

The project is a collaboration between engineers and medical researchers at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder and �鶹��Ѱ��Anschutz.

A new device can fit in the palm of your hand and is capable of measuring the quality of red blood cells. (Credit: Xiaoyun Ding)

The team’s device hasn’t yet been approved for use. But the group hopes that it could one day help the United States better manage its precious blood supply.

The entire test also fits on a single chip, said Xiaoyun Ding, associate professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

“Our vision is to have a chip the size of a dime that you can plug into your cell phone,” he said. “It could use your phone’s camera and an app to read out the results in just two minutes.”

Ding and his colleagues published their findings in the latest issue of the journal Lab on a Chip.

The project focuses on a little-known problem in the medical world.

Every year, roughly 6.8 million people donate blood in the United States alone, helping save millions of lives, according to the American Red Cross. But just like groceries sitting on store shelves, red blood cells age over time.

To track that aging process, Ding and study co-author Angelo D’Alessandro, an expert on red blood cells, turned to an unusual property: vibrations.

The team’s device, known as a surface acoustic wave hemolysis assay (SAW-HA), jiggles red blood cells until they break apart—revealing valuable information about the health of those cells.

Think of it a bit like shaking a jar of salad dressing to break up clumps.

“We envision that this technology could help allocate higher-quality units to vulnerable patient populations, such as pediatric patients and patients with sickle cell disease who receive regular transfusions,” said D’Alessandro, professor in the School of Medicine at �鶹��Ѱ��Anschutz.

Xiaoyun Ding

Angelo D'Alessandro

Expiration date

When you donate blood, technicians will first separate your red blood cells from the rest of your blood, including the plasma and white blood cells. They then store your red blood cells at near-freezing temperatures.

Over time, some red blood cells lose their healthy, rounded shape and begin to look spikey. Eventually, they die and burst open through a phenomenon called hemolysis.

In the United States, blood centers can only store red blood cells for 42 days. But, D’Alessandro noted, blood from some donors ages faster than blood from other donors—potentially compromising the effectiveness of transfusions.

“Despite the central role of transfusion in modern medicine, routine quality control of red blood cell products after regulatory approval is remarkably limited,” D’Alessandro said.

Shaken not stirred

The group’s device is modeled around surface acoustic waves, or SAWs. They are similar to sound waves but move only over the topmost layer of a material. (Earthquakes, for example, generate waves that reverberate across the planet’s surface and can cause serious damage).

The team first deposits a thin layer of metallic electrodes on top of a wafer made from a material called lithium niobate. The researchers then add a tiny drop of blood. When they pass an electric current through the device, the lithium niobate begins to vibrate wildly—shaking the blood.

Those vibrations cause the red blood cells to heat up, and they eventually undergo hemolysis, dumping their contents into the surrounding solution.

The researchers suspect that older blood cells burst faster and at lower temperatures.

“When cells get older and older, their membranes become weaker and weaker,” Ding said.

For the new study, the researchers tested the device by shaking real red blood cells from donors.

Some blood samples, they found, hemolyzed at lower temperatures. Those samples also contained higher or lower levels of certain molecules, known as metabolites, that previous research has shown are associated with aging cells.

The team still has a lot of work to do before it can be used as a reliable indicator of red blood cell quality in real blood centers. But Ding noted that these “labs on a chip” could also help to screen human patients for a variety of diseases of the blood, including sickle cell disease.

“We can potentially measure anything that affects red blood cells or protein levels in the blood,” Ding said.

Beyond the story

Our bioscience impact by the numbers:

Top 7% university for National Science Foundation research funding
No. 30 global university system granted U.S. patents
89-plus biotech startups with roots at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder in past 20 years

Follow �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder on LinkedIn

A new device, designed by researchers at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder and �鶹��Ѱ��Anschutz, jiggles red blood cells until they break apart—revealing valuable information about their quality.

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Tom Cech to Davos: RNA research is 'still a big deal'

Lisa Marshall — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 17:02:26 +0000

Tom Cech to Davos: RNA research is 'still a big deal' Lisa Marshall Tue, 01/20/2026 - 10:02

Lisa Marshall

Nobel laureate Tom Cech will address political leaders, CEOs and tech pioneers from around the globe at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland this week. His message: RNA research is critical for human health and good for the global economy.

“The potential of RNA therapeutics right now is phenomenal,” said Cech, a distinguished professor of biochemistry at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder who won the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his RNA research. “But unfortunately, we are living at a time when RNA has become politicized.”

Tom Cech on the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus.

Cech will join RNA researcher and 2024 Nobel Prize winner Victor Ambros for a Wednesday morning talk titled “RNA: Why it is still a big deal.” He’ll also participate in a luncheon titled “Stories of Courage and Discovery.”

His visit comes as misinformation about the molecule abounds on social media, and public funding for some RNA-related research is under threat. In August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human services moved to cancel nearly $500 million in contracts that funded mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine development.

This week’s WEF meeting is expected to draw 3,000 leaders from 130 countries, including 400 top political leaders—President Donald Trump among them—and 850 top CEOs.

Cech said he hopes his visit can help shed light on the rich history and great promise of the long-overlooked molecule that has inspired 11 Nobel prizes and nearly 400 new drugs.

“This is not a new-fangled invention to be frightened of,” said Cech. “These are proven technologies built through science over the course of six decades, and they have the potential to save millions of lives.”

A national leader

In December, the analytics platform ScholarGPS ranked Cech No. 1 in the world for lifetime RNA research and �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder as No. 1 in the study of ribosomal RNA. Fourteen of the top 100 RNA researchers listed are either at �鶹��Ѱ��or trained at �鶹��Ѱ��and are now professors elsewhere.

Tune in

Tune in

Who: Livestream open to general public; in-person open only to conference attendees
What: "RNA, Why it is Still a Big Deal" featuring Nobel laureates Tom Cech and Victor Ambros
When: 2:30 a.m. MST (10:30 a.m. CET); session will also be recorded
Where: Livestream of the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland

“Our No. 1 ranking is a reflection of all the talented students and post docs who have come through here,” said Cech.

Since its discovery in 1953, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) has become a household word. But many people would be hard-pressed to identify what RNA stands for (ribonucleic acid).

“DNA has been in the spotlight and RNA has been in the shadows,” Cech said.

RNA is, essentially, a copy of one of the two strands in DNA. For years, it was viewed as a messenger, ferrying genetic instructions from DNA to tell the cell to make certain proteins.

Cech’s Nobel-winning discovery revealed that RNA could also be a catalyst on its own, igniting chemical reactions necessary for life to exist.

“It was one of the moments in science when people woke up to thinking they had underestimated RNA, and they should keep their eyes open for new things it could do,” he said.

New therapies for rare diseases

Since then, RNA research has spawned a host of medical breakthroughs.

In 2020, University of California Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna, who completed her postdoctoral training in Cech’s lab, won the Nobel Prize for developing CRISPR. The gene-editing tool uses RNA to guide “molecular scissors” to specific positions on the genome to make cuts. The discovery is already leading to new therapies for genetic diseases, including an FDA-approved treatment for sickle cell disease.

Building sustainable food systems

Zia Mehrabi, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies, is also attending this week's WEF meeting, where he will discuss how to build more sustainable food systems.

Mehrabi was recently named an international champion of the Frontiers Planet Prize, which celebrates breakthroughs in Earth system and planetary science that address urgent environmental challenges.

As the leader of the Better Planet Lab, Mehrabi has revealed the widespread environmental and human costs of global food systems.

Ambros won the Nobel Prize in 2024 for discovering “micro-RNAs,” which can work like a dimmer switch to turn genes up and down. In all, about 500 microRNAs have been identified in people, with some implicated in cancer, congenital hearing loss, and eye and skeletal disorders. Tens of thousands of patients, including children with rare diseases, are already being treated with therapies related to micro-RNAs.

By far the most well-known, and controversial, application of RNA research has been for vaccine development.

In 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer-BioNTech’s new COVID-19 vaccine, which uses messenger RNA to instruct the body to make the COVID “spike protein,” inducing an immune response.

By some estimates, these vaccines saved nearly 20 million lives in the first year of their use.

Because RNA-based therapies are easy to repurpose to prevent or treat different diseases, Cech believes the new frontier of RNA-based therapies has only just begun.

But he acknowledges that confusion abounds among non-scientists.

Contrary to popular belief, he says, mRNA-based vaccines cannot “change people’s genes,” and they are not based on new science.

As he heads to the world’s most famous economic forum, Cech stresses another benefit of funding a broad array of RNA research.

“The cost to society, of dealing with extremely ill children and adults, is a huge burden. If we can diagnose and treat disease more effectively, we will not only aid human happiness, but we will also have a huge economic impact.”

The Nobel laureate and �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder professor, recently ranked #1 globally for RNA research, will speak at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland Wednesday.

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Flags fly over Davos, Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum meeting. �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Professor Tom Cech will be there, to present a talk on the importance of RNA research.

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder pre-seed investment fuels cancer 'moonshot' spinout Illumen Therapeutics

Megan M Rogers — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 18:31:50 +0000

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder pre-seed investment fuels cancer 'moonshot' spinout Illumen Therapeutics Megan M Rogers Mon, 01/05/2026 - 11:31

In an ongoing effort to bridge a pervasive investment gap in innovation funding, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder has awarded pre-seed funding to Illumen Therapeutics, developing cancer treatments based on discoveries from startup co-founder Roy Parker's lab at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

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Research charts the pathway from thought to emotion

Megan M Rogers — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 19:02:35 +0000

Research charts the pathway from thought to emotion Megan M Rogers Mon, 12/22/2025 - 12:02

Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder scientist Roselinde Kaiser and research colleagues seek to understand the connection between executive functioning and mood problems.

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Murder and the microbiome

Megan M Rogers — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 20:29:46 +0000

Murder and the microbiome Megan M Rogers Tue, 12/16/2025 - 13:29

Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine

A paper co-authored by �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder researcher Christopher Lowry draws upon the infamous "Twinkie defense" to explore the relationship between ultra-processed foods and human behavior.

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As community spaces disappear, research warns of health, equity risks

Megan M Rogers — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 16:18:58 +0000

As community spaces disappear, research warns of health, equity risks Megan M Rogers Thu, 12/11/2025 - 09:18

New �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder research reveals that the closing of third places across the United States is a growing social and public health concern, especially for underrepresented communities.

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Sweeping study shows similar genetic factors underlie multiple psychiatric disorders

Yvaine Ye — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 21:43:24 +0000

Sweeping study shows similar genetic factors underlie multiple psychiatric disorders Yvaine Ye Wed, 12/10/2025 - 14:43

Lisa Marshall

Distinct psychiatric disorders have more in common biologically than previously believed, according to the largest and most detailed analysis to date of how genes influence mental illness.

The study, led by �鶹��Ѱ�� and Mass General Brigham researchers, could inform efforts to improve the way psychological disorders are diagnosed and provide insight for developing novel treatments that address multiple disorders at once.

The findings were published Dec. 10 in the journal Nature.

“Right now, we diagnose psychiatric disorders based on what we see in the room, and many people will be diagnosed with multiple disorders. That can be hard to treat and disheartening for patients,” said corresponding author, Andrew Grotzinger, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. “This work provides the best evidence yet that there may be things that we are currently giving different names to that are actually driven by the same biological processes.”

Andrew Grotzinger

Co-corresponding author Jordan Smoller, MD, director of the Center for Precision Psychiatry at Mass General in Boston, said the findings also provide key insight into the biological pathways and gene expression in brain cell types that may underly certain conditions.

“These findings provide valuable clues for advancing our understanding and treatment of mental illness with greater precision,” said Smoller.

The researchers, in collaboration with the international Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Cross-Disorder Working Group, examined DNA data from more than 1 million individuals diagnosed with at least one of 14 psychiatric disorders and 5 million individuals with no diagnoses.

They found that five underlying “genomic factors” involving 238 genetic variants made up the majority of the genetic differences between those with a particular disorder and those without it. The paper groups disorders into five categories, each with a shared genetic architecture, including: disorders with compulsive features such as anorexia nervosa, Tourette disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); “internalizing conditions” including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder; substance use disorders; and neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Notably, the paper groups bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in a fifth category, reporting that 70% of the genetic signal associated with schizophrenia is also associated with bipolar disorder. The field of psychology has historically viewed bipolar disorder and schizophrenia as very different, and clinicians typically will not diagnose an individual with both.

“Genetically, we saw that they are more similar than they are unique,” said Grotzinger.

The paper also points to specific biological pathways that may underlie the groups of disorders.

For instance, genes that influence excitatory neurons, which are involved in transmitting signals across other neurons, tend to be over-expressed in both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, the research suggests.

In internalizing disorders like depression and anxiety, variants in genes that control non-neuronal cells called oligodendrocytes, were common. These specialized cells help maintain and protect the brain’s wiring infrastructure.

The findings suggest that some shared genetic factors play a role very early in brain development during the fetal stages of life, while others could have a greater influence later in adult life. This insight could help to create a more biological way of understanding psychiatric conditions and lead to new, more precise treatment strategies, the authors said.

According to one 2018 review, more than half of people diagnosed with one psychiatric disorder will be diagnosed with a second or third in their lifetime. About 41% will meet the criteria for four or more.

Grotzinger said it is too early to begin combining diagnoses based on the findings. But as researchers work to update the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the guiding handbook for the mental health field, he hopes the new study will be considered.

“By identifying what is shared across these disorders, we can hopefully come up with ways to target them in a different way that doesn’t require four separate pills or four separate psychotherapy interventions.”

Beyond the story

Our bioscience impact by the numbers:

Top 7% university for National Science Foundation research funding
No. 30 global university system granted U.S. patents
89-plus biotech startups with roots at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder in past 20 years

Follow �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder on LinkedIn

A global team looked at the DNA of more than 6 million people and categorized psychiatric disorders into five groups based on shared genetic factors. The findings could inform new, more precise ways to diagnose mental illness and therapies to treat more than one at once.

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Your brain on imagination: Study reveals how the mind's eye helps us learn and change

Lisa Marshall — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 12:31:49 +0000

Your brain on imagination: Study reveals how the mind's eye helps us learn and change Lisa Marshall Wed, 12/10/2025 - 05:31

Lisa Marshall

Merely imagining a positive encounter with someone can not only make you like them better but can also change how information about that person is stored in your brain, according to new research published Dec. 10 in the journal Nature Communication.

The paper, led by cognitive neuroscientists at the �鶹��Ѱ�� and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany, provides some of the strongest evidence yet that vivid imagining can have tangible neural and behavioral impacts. The findings could inform new ways to address mental health issues, improve relationships and even boost sports and musical performance.

Roland Benoit

“We show that we can learn from imagined experiences, and it works very much the same way in the brain that it does when we learn from actual experiences,” said senior author Roland Benoit, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

“It suggests that imagination is not passive,” said first author Aroma Dabas, who conducted the study as a graduate student at Max Planck. “Rather, it can actively shape what we expect and what we choose.”

What imagination and memory have in common

Previous research has suggested that the same brain regions that enable us to remember the past are at play when we imagine the future.

Children develop the capacity to imagine and remember around the same time —age 3. In older adults, these abilities tend to decline around the same time, too. And individuals with damage to memory centers in the brain find it hard to imagine new experiences.

“If memory and imagination are so similar, then theoretically people should be able to learn from merely imagined events,” said Benoit.

To test this theory, the researchers recruited 50 people for a brain imaging study.

The experiments centered around “reward prediction error,” a phenomenon critical to helping people establish preferences, form habits and learn.

It goes something like this: We encounter something in the real world that gives us more reward than we predicted. Our brain produces a puff of the neurotransmitter dopamine to signal that we, unexpectedly, like it. The more of a surprise that positive encounter is, the greater this “prediction error,” and the more our brain lays down neural connections to lock in that preference.

To test whether an imagined encounter would set that same brain machinery in motion, the researchers asked study subjects to list 30 people they knew and rank them from those they liked to those they felt neutral about to those they disliked.

Inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, participants were presented with names of those ranked as neutral. They were instructed to imagine, vividly, for 8 seconds, either a positive experience with that person (for instance, an ice cream cone with them on a hot day) or a negative experience (say, they borrowed your bike and returned it broken).

Participants developed a preference for the people they’d had more imaginary fun with, and, on a subsequent test, they indicated that they liked them more.

Remarkably, how they arrived at that preference played out clearly on their brain scans: The ventral striatum (the main brain region that governs reward prediction error) lit up more during imaginations when the participants experienced a stronger prediction error, or unexpectedly positive surprise. This region appeared to work in tandem with the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, which is involved in storing memories of individual people.

“This provides a mechanism-level reason for how vividly imagining future scenarios, like a conversation, a social encounter, or a challenging situation, might influence our motivation, avoidance tendencies and later choices,” said Dabas.

Putting imagination to work

Previous work by other research groups has also suggested that mentally rehearsing movements, like playing the piano, can improve performance on the real—life stage.

In psychotherapy, the potential applications for imagination are broad, said Benoit.

Aroma Dabas

For instance, instead of exposing themselves to real-life fears — as is already done in the common phobia remedy known as exposure therapy — people could imagine them and get similar results.

To ease tensions at work, one might imagine a fun time with a coworker they aren’t so sure about.

Imagination has its dark sides, too, though.

People with anxiety and depression tend to vividly imagine more negative things, and this can exacerbate problems.

“You can paint the world black just by imagining it,” said Benoit.

The new study did not find that imagining negative experiences with individuals made participants like them less. The authors hope to do more research to understand why.

The takeaway for now: Imagine better relationships and they just might happen that way in real life.

A new study shows that merely imagining a positive encounter with someone can make you like them better by engaging brain regions involved with learning and preference. The findings could have implications for psychotherapy, sports performance and more.

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