Mind over matter: can belief alone reduce empathic pain?
NCT ID NCT07367672
First seen Jun 27, 2026 · Last updated Jun 27, 2026
Summary
This study looks at how our beliefs and expectations influence the pain we feel when watching others suffer. Healthy adults will be placed in one of three groups: no treatment, a placebo nasal spray, or a spray with oxytocin. All participants in the spray groups are told they are getting oxytocin, a pain reliever. While in an MRI scanner, they watch videos of people in pain and rate their own discomfort. The goal is to understand how the brain processes empathic pain and how expectation can change it.
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Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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Not a phased trial
Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.
- Participants
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About 120 people
The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.
- Started
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Dec 2025
- Expected to finish
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Mar 2026
An estimate. End dates often move.
- Lead sponsor
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Other sponsor
The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
- Ages
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18 to 30 years
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Accepted
You do not need to have the condition being studied to take part.
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Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Inclusion Criteria: * (1) Healthy subjects without any past or present psychiatric or neurological disorders; (2) Healthy subjects without any current psychotherapeutic medication. Exclusion Criteria: * (1) Participant with any past or present psychiatric or neurological disorders; (2)Participant with any current psychotherapeutic medication.
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As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
How to take part
Only the study team decides who joins. These are the ways to reach them.
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The places running it
2 sites. The list below names each one and where it is.
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The official record
ClinicalTrials.gov lists the study team's own contact details, including names and phone numbers. We don't republish those.
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A doctor treating you
A doctor who knows your case can contact a study site on your behalf, and can tell you whether this study is worth pursuing at all.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
ENROLLING_BY_INVITATIONChengdu, China
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Weihua Zhao
RECRUITINGChengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China
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