The pursuit of motivational goals reduces pain through an opioidergic mechanism
- 1Institute of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
Abstract
Pain promotes protective behavior but can interfere with other biologically important goals. Survival may require overcoming pain to obtain rewards, secure resources or escape danger, yet evidence for pain modulation by competing demands and endogenous modulatory systems during goal pursuit is lacking. We developed a paradigm in which participants chose whether to pursue monetary rewards despite painful heat stimulation during fMRI, under placebo or opioid receptor blockade with naloxone. Actively pursuing motivational goals during painful stimulation reduced perceived pain and increased fMRI signal in pain-modulatory cortical regions, including multiple subregions of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, alongside enhanced rACC-periaqueductal gray coupling, consistent with recruitment of the descending pain modulatory system. Behavioral and neural effects were attenuated by naloxone, supporting a mediating role for endogenous opioids. These findings provide convergent evidence that active goal pursuit engages opioidergic pain modulatory mechanisms to reduce pain in humans.
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BibTeX
@misc{asan2026pursuit,
title = {{The pursuit of motivational goals reduces pain through an opioidergic mechanism}},
author = {L. Asan and O. Goltermann and L. Keuter and J. Jessberger and C. Büchel},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.64898/2026.08.26.747254},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.26.747254v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The pursuit of motivational goals reduces pain through an opioidergic mechanism
AU - L. Asan
AU - O. Goltermann
AU - L. Keuter
AU - J. Jessberger
AU - C. Büchel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/26
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.08.26.747254
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.26.747254v1
AB - Pain promotes protective behavior but can interfere with other biologically important goals. Survival may require overcoming pain to obtain rewards, secure resources or escape danger, yet evidence for pain modulation by competing demands and endogenous modulatory systems during goal pursuit is lacking. We developed a paradigm in which participants chose whether to pursue monetary rewards despite painful heat stimulation during fMRI, under placebo or opioid receptor blockade with naloxone. Actively pursuing motivational goals during painful stimulation reduced perceived pain and increased fMRI signal in pain-modulatory cortical regions, including multiple subregions of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, alongside enhanced rACC-periaqueductal gray coupling, consistent with recruitment of the descending pain modulatory system. Behavioral and neural effects were attenuated by naloxone, supporting a mediating role for endogenous opioids. These findings provide convergent evidence that active goal pursuit engages opioidergic pain modulatory mechanisms to reduce pain in humans.
ER -