iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Francesca Fardo

Heejung Jung @jungheejung.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

New Open dataset alert: 🧠 Introducing "Spacetop" – a massive multimodal fMRI dataset that bridges naturalistic and experimental neuroscience! N = 101 x 6 hours each = 606 functional iso-hours combining movies, pain, faces, theory-of-mind and other cognitive tasks! 🧵below

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

I'm deeply grateful to everyone who contributed! Especially first-author, Jesper Fischer Ehmsen, and co-last author @micahgallen.com, whose brilliance, dedication, and generosity brought our vision to life in ways far beyond what a single tweet could capture!

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Huge thanks to our funders @erc.europa.eu and @lundbeckfonden.bsky.social for supporting this project. Thanks also to our research centre, CFIN, without whom we could not have collected this data. This work was the result of incredible teamwork between my lab and @the-ecg.bsky.social.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Key takeaways: (1) the brain interprets sensations based on expectations, making harmless inputs painful when uncertainty is high. (2) Individual computational fingerprints during thermosensory learning reflect distinct brain microstructural correlates.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Using quantitative MRI, we linked thermal learning parameters to brain microstructure. Notably, decision temperature correlated with iron content in the Subnucleus Reticularis Dorsalis (SRD), a key structure in descending pain modulation.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

In contrast, second-order uncertainty, reflecting how unsure you are about the precision of your own predictions, actually intensified the illusion of pain. This means that when thermal expectations are uncertain, the brain interprets these ambiguous stimuli as more painful!

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

We compared multiple computational models and found a two-level Hierarchical Gaussian Filter best explained our data. First-level uncertainty shaped temperature sensations: stronger expectations of cold amplified cold feelings, while stronger warm predictions enhanced warmth.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

We manipulated uncertainty in two ways: (1) continuously changing cue-stimulus associations via probabilistic reversals; (2) introducing ambiguous trials combining harmless cool & warm stimuli, eliciting the "thermal grill illusion" of pain!

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

To answer this question, over 250 participants learned associations between auditory cues and warm or cold stimuli, and rated their experiences of cold, warmth, and pain.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

We know expectations shape how we experience temperature and pain. But what happens when we're unsure what's coming next? Our key question: can uncertainty about expectations lead the brain to mistakenly perceive harmless temperatures as painful?

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Excited to share our latest publication, out now in @ScienceAdvances: “Thermosensory predictive coding underpins an illusion of pain.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/.... Read the full thread for details!

science.org

Thermosensory predictive coding underpins an illusion of pain

Computational modeling reveals how uncertainty transforms harmless stimuli into perceptions of pain.

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Reposted by Francesca Fardo

Massi(e)h Moayedi — مسیح مویدی @massih.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

My brilliant student Matt Cormie became interested in the thermal grill, and designed a study to see if the TG can elicit primary/secondary hyperalgesia and/or brush allodynia. These could help us parse out the mechanisms involved. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

The Thermal Grill Elicits Central Sensitization

The thermal grill, in which innocuous warm and cool stimuli are interlaced, can produce a paradoxical burning pain sensation—the thermal grill illusion (TGI). While the mechanisms underlying TGI remai...

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Reposted by Francesca Fardo

Gerardo Salvato @gerardosalvato.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Cold hands, altered ownership? We link disturbed body ownership in stroke patients to reduced hand temperature and impaired thermoception. The right Insula & Parietal hubs are key players. We are excited to share our new findings @naturecomms.bsky.social ▶️ rdcu.be/d5SDU

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

All data, code, and materials will soon be available here: github.com/Body-Pain-Pe... Thanks for reading, and we are excited to hear your thoughts on the study!

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

This was a monumental effort - the culmination of a decade of collaboration with @micahgallen.com, and our first shared last-author paper. It would not have been possible without the amazing work of @jesperfischer.bsky.social!

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

In summary: we learn about thermal contingencies using hierarchical Bayesian mechanisms, where the precision of our expectations guides both veridical pain sensation and illusions of pain. Individual differences in this precision weighting are linked to TGI response and brain microstructure!

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

We were intrigued to find that R2* in bilateral, basolateral amygdala was related to the uncertainty modulation of the thermal grill index. This region is important for affect and pain conditioning, and could help explain how we infer pain sensations from harmless inputs.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

We find that individual variance in thermosensory computations (e.g., decision temperature and hierarchical uncertainty) index the microstructural features of the somatosensory cortex, insula, amygdala, and the brainstem Subnucleus Reticularis Dorsalis (SRD).

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

Next, leveraging our large sample, we conducted a whole brain quantitative MRI analysis using the MPM sequences developed collaborators at UCL, relating individual fingerprints of thermosensory computations to brain maps indexing cortical myelination and iron.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

This means that the more you incorporate uncertainty into your illusory pain ratings, the more sensitive to the TGI you are in general! In the future, uncertainty-weighted TGI may provide a useful way to quantify disordered pain.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

Clinically, responsiveness to the TGI is often used as an indicator of thermo-nociceptive function. We calculated an uncertainty modulation of thermal grill illusion index (UMTI), and found that it was highly correlated with individual differences in TGI response.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

So cool and warm percepts are precision-weighted, but what about the illusion? Remarkably, we find that the intensity of the TGI is specifically increased by estimation uncertainty. When we are unable to make reliable thermal predictions, we infer greater pain.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

Next, using our hierarchical ZOIB regression approach, we predicted VAS ratings using trial by trial variance in prediction and estimation uncertainty. We find that the precision (i.e., inverse uncertainty) of thermosensory predictions increases felt cold and warm sensations.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

The model does an excellent job of explaining trial by trial learning, where the 1st level encodes thermal prediction uncertainty (e.g., probability of warm vs cold stimuli) and the 2nd encodes estimation uncertainty (e.g., uncertainty about cue-stimulus associations).

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

To develop a precision-weighted predictive coding model of thermosensation, we adapted the hierarchical gaussian filter (HGF) to our task. Bayesian model comparison, posterior predictive checks, and cross-validation all supported a 2-level learning model.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

So how did TGI trials influence thermal learning? We hypothesized that TGI would reinforce associations depending on if they were perceived as predominately warm or cold. We found participants were highly stable in this tendency, which significantly explained post TGI errors.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

Positive control 3): Do predictions influence subjective ratings? Hierarchical zero one inflated beta regression (ZOIB) of VAS ratings revealed that cold and warm ratings are increased when stimuli matched predictions. Participants expectations shifted their felt sensations!

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

Positive control 2): Did catch trials successfully elicit the TGI? Yes! Catch trials were rated as significantly more warm and burning, characteristic of the TGI, than innocuous cold and warm trials. Same temperatures, but participants feel more pain!

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

Positive control 1): does cue validity (predictive, nonpredictive, antipredictive) influence participants' predictions and reactions times? Yes! Participants successfully learned the cue-stimulus associations. Responses to TGI trials resembled veridical prediction error trials.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

By presenting these stimuli together, the thermal grill illusion elicits a feeling of burning, tingling pain. These catch trials acted as ambiguous stimuli, and allowed us to assess how learned thermal expectations modulate the intensity of both innocuous and painful sensations.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

Across blocks, the relationship between cues and stimuli underwent probablistic reversals, requiring associative learning. However, unbeknownst to the participants, within this sequence we embedded combinations of the same innocuous temperatures, creating a thermal grill.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

To study how expectations & uncertainty influence feeling cool vs warm, we designed a novel probalistic thermal learning (PTL) task. 267 healthy participants heard auditory cues, predicted if the next stimulus would be cool or warm, and then rated felt cold, warm, and burning.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

While many studies investigate how expectations alter nociception and pain, little is known about the predictive coding of non-painful thermosensation, and by extension, phenomenon like the thermal grill illusion.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

Thermosensory predictive coding underpins an illusion of pain! Our new study reveals how perceptions of pain can emerge from the interplay between thermal sensations, expectations, and uncertainty. Check out our thread for all the details! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #neuroskyence #psychology 🧪

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 24/01/2024

Hi Dermot! Well spotted. We corrected a mistake and now the values make sense. They will be updated in the new version of the preprint. ☺️

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

This project was led by an exceptionally talented student, @rebeccaboe.bsky.social who both conceived the project and saw it through to completion. We are also grateful for the collaboration with @the-ecg.bsky.social. All data & code are available at our github repository!

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

Our results suggest caution in extrapolating from lab-based pain studies to real world pain & mental health phenomena. Our conclusions are also limited to the types of pain studied here: it is possible that other models (e.g., mechanical pain) might still relate to mental health.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

This was particularly surprising, as we found that pain symptom scores (measured by the PHQ-15), were highly correlated with depression scores. This suggests that experiencing systematic pain is a factor in mental health, even if laboratory measures of acute pain are unrelated.

Heatmap and scatter plots depicting cross correlations between mental health and pain sensitivity variables (HPT, CPT; CHPT). In particular, somatic pain symptoms was a robust predictor of depression symptoms.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

We then estimated correlations between these factors and pain sensitivity profiles. To our surprise, we did not replicate previous findings, finding no link between pain sensitivity and symptoms. Bayesian analyses indicated strong to moderate evidence for the null correlation.

Scatter plots depicting the lack of correlation between our mental health factors and pain sensitivity.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

To measure mental health symptoms, participants completed validated inventories, spanning depression, anxiety, well-being, and pain symptoms. Using factor analysis, we found a three-factor structure which indexed general distress, fatigue, and bodily distress.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

To assess individual pain sensitivity, we measured participants' cold ❄️, warm 🔥, and thermal grill ❄️ & 🔥 pain threshold using a special thermode. This enabled us to construct a thermal pain profile for each participant, spanning veridical and illusory pain sensitivity.

Box plots showing individual pain thresholds for the three experimental conditions.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

We addressed these issues in a new study of mental health symptoms and sensitivity to cold ❄️ and warm 🔥 pain in 260 individuals 👥. Our sample was recruited from Aarhus University and the surrounding community and reflected a wide range of mental health symptoms and pain sensitivity profiles.

A generated cartoon depicting a pain experiment.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

Studies suggest mental health and pain are closely linked. Chronic pain is a major risk factor for depression, which is also known to reduce acute pain sensitivity. However, this link is obscured by a preponderance of underpowered studies, which have led to conflicting results.

Generated image depicting depression and thermal pain.

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

📄 Our new preprint is out! In a new study of more than 250 individuals, we investigated the link between mental health and sensitivity to acute thermal pain 🌡️😣. Check out the thread below for surprising findings, as well as links to all study materials and code! osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧠📈 #psychology

A generated image, depicting a painting linking mental health and thermal pain, in an impressionist style.

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Reposted by Francesca Fardo

Embodied Computation Group @the-ecg.org · 01/12/2023

Tonight is our joint ECG and Body-Pain-Perception Lab's Julefrokost! God Jul! Tak @francescafardo.bsky.social & @mgallen.bsky.social for hosting.

a silly gpt scene of a neurothemed lab julefrokost

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Reposted by Francesca Fardo

Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · 14/11/2023

On our way to Aberdeen to share our latest research on interoception, pain, and thermosensation! 🧠📈 🧠🫀 @francescafardo.bsky.social

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Reposted by Francesca Fardo

Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · 13/11/2023

@francescafardo.bsky.social and I are excited to head to Aberdeen tomorrow to hang out with Bert Timmermans and colleagues!

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 30/09/2023

Not anymore! It worked great for coordinating smaller, more practical tasks among RAs in the past, but none of the PhD students and postdocs in my lab have managed to use it successfully to my knowledge

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Francesca Fardo @francescafardo.bsky.social · 19/09/2023

Check out our 🔥 preprint on paradoxical heat! Big shoutout to @agmitchell.bsky.social and the team for the awesome work 👏

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