Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Anecdotal evidence indicates that individuals experience pain in very different ways -- a pinprick to one person might be experienced as shooting pain to another. But functional MRI is beginning to reveal the physiological processes that underlie such variations in pain sensitivity.
In an article we’re featuring this week in our MRI Digital Community, contributing writer Bruce Sylvester discusses research conducted at U.S. and Canadian medical centers on the neurobiological manifestations of pain. The researchers have discovered that individuals who report higher sensitivity to pain have similar patterns of sensory activity on fMRI brain scans.
For example, more sensitive individuals show increased activity of the primary somatosensory cortex (the pain location and sensitivity center) and the anterior cingulate cortex (the area processing the unpleasant feelings evoked by pain). Meanwhile, less sensitive people showed very similar levels of activation for the thalamus region.
The study offers evidence that clinicians may someday be able to modulate the pain management of individuals receiving therapy or surgery. But the researchers caution against making too much of the study, as patient self-reports of their own pain experiences appear to be more accurate than functional imaging studies in assessing pain sensitivity.
Get the rest of the story in our MRI Digital Community, at http://mri.auntminnie.com.
