Patrick volunteered as a subject in a neuroscience experiment for an assignment in his undergraduate psychology course. The experiment used hypnosis to examine pain perception. Prior to being hypnotized, Patrick had a sharp probe poke his hand. He was asked to rate the pain on a 1 (no pain) to 5 (intense pain) scale. The probe never broke the skin, but the researchers took note of how much pressure it took to elicit both a level 2 and a level 4 amount of pain. Once hypnotized within a fMRI machine, the researchers put enough pressure on the probe to elicit a level 2 pain. However, without changing the intensity of the pressure, they convinced Patrick that the pain unpleasantness was getting worse over the course of the experiment. Given this protocol, in what brain area would you expect to see increases in activity as they convince him the pain is getting more unpleasant?
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