PLACEBO EFFECT

This study asks whether simply believing you've taken caffeine can improve physical and mental performance, even when you've actually received a placebo. Healthy adults aged 20–30 will complete four cycling sessions, sometimes getting real caffeine and sometimes a dummy pill, whi…

This study explores whether believing you've taken caffeine can improve physical performance in real-world sports settings. Healthy, physically active adults will be randomly assigned to receive caffeine, a placebo (starch capsule), or no treatment, then perform sport-specific ex…

This study looks at how different warm-up strategies affect jump height and agility in female athletes who play invasion sports like soccer, handball, and basketball. Twenty athletes will try three conditions: a standard warm-up, a warm-up with a performance-enhancing activity, a…

This study looks at how seeing someone else benefit from a placebo treatment, along with your own past experiences, can influence the placebo effect. Researchers will use brain scans (fMRI) to understand these effects in 120 healthy adults. The goal is to learn what makes placebo…

This early-phase study investigates whether the opioid system is involved in placebo effects on both physical pain and the pain of social rejection. Sixty adults who recently experienced an unwanted breakup will receive either naloxone (which blocks opioids) or saline, and be tol…