Investigating Pain Processing in the Brain, Brainstem, and Spinal Cord with fMRI

Northwestern University At Chicago, Evanston IL

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic pain syndromes remain a widespread problem in the United States. Chronic pain causes much suffering and places a large economic burden on the health care system. Recent advancements in brain imaging techniques are increasing our understanding of the role of the brain in the perpetuation of chronic pain. These studies are beginning to decode the neural substrates underlying chronic pain states. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), our group has demonstrated distinct temporal and spatial disturbances in brain activity in chronic pain states such as chronic low back pain. The principal goal of the proposed project is to expand on our previous fMRI pain studies and investigate pain processing along the entire neuraxis. The proposed research aims to utilize fMRI to further characterize and understand pain-related neural activity at the level of the brain, brainstem, and spinal cord in both healthy subjects and chronic neck pain patients. Overall, this information will increase our understanding of pain processing and further characterize the neural substrates underlying chronic neck pain. Specifically, our team intends to use these results in the future to properly design studies using fMRI to measure treatment-induced changes in pain-related brain, brainstem, and spinal cord activity.