Functional reorganisation in chronic pain and neural correlates of pain sensitisation

Tanasescu, Radu; Cottam, William; Condon, Laura; Tench, Christopher R.; Auer, Dorothee P.

Abstract

© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Maladaptive mechanisms of pain processing in chronic pain conditions (CP) are poorly understood. We used coordinate based meta-analysis of 266 fMRI pain studies to study functional brain reorganisation in CP and experimental models of hyperalgesia.The pattern of nociceptive brain activation was similar in CP, hyperalgesia and normalgesia in controls. However, elevated likelihood of activation was detected in the left putamen, left frontal gyrus and right insula in CP comparing stimuli of the most painful vs. other site. Meta-analysis of contrast maps showed no difference between CP, controls, mood conditions. In contrast, experimental hyperalgesia induced stronger activation in the bilateral insula, left cingulate and right frontal gyrus.Activation likelihood maps support a shared neural pain signature of cutaneous nociception in CP and controls. We also present a double dissociation between neural correlates of transient and persistent pain sensitisation with general increased activation intensity but unchanged pattern in experimental hyperalgesia and, by contrast, focally increased activation likelihood, but unchanged intensity, in CP when stimulated at the most painful body part.

Citation

Tanasescu, R., Cottam, W., Condon, L., Tench, C. R., & Auer, D. P. (2016). Functional reorganisation in chronic pain and neural correlates of pain sensitisation. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 68, 120-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.04.001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Online Publication Date: May 7, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 30, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jun 15, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 14, 2019
• Journal: Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
• Print ISSN: 0149-7634
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-7528
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 68
• Pages: 120-133
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.04.001
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1111219
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763415300191?via%3Dihub
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Functional reorganisation in chronic pain and neural correlates of pain sensitisation: A coordinate based meta-analysis of 266 cutaneous pain fMRI studies; Journal Title: Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.04.001; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.