Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2026
08:50
How to Study Placebo Responses in Motion Sickness with a Rotation Chair Paradigm in Healthy Participants
Published on: December 14, 2014
Physiology of the placebo effect, and the evidence for changes in brain metabolism
124 Stonebridge Estate, Wallace Road, R D 9, Hamilton 3289, New Zealand. mart-jan@xtra.co.nz
The New Zealand Medical Journal
|April 15, 2010
Abstract:
Placebo effects are accompanied by localised changes in brain physiology. Variation between individuals in the extent of a placebo effect is due to genetic variation in brain enzyme activity. Some of the effect of any active drug is a placebo effect, and this should be considered in the evaluation of overall action.
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The placebo effect occurs when people's expectations or beliefs influence or determine their experience in a given situation. In other words, simply expecting something to happen can actually make it happen.
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Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which child was...
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