Exploration of cerebral biomarker for chronic pain on the basis of the cerebral machanisms of offset analgesia

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26460695
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Pain science
• Research Institution: Tokyo Medical and Dental University
• Principal Investigator: Kurata Jiro 東京医科歯科大学, 医学部附属病院, 講師 (50349768)
• Research Collaborator: KOBINATA Hiroyuki ; IKEDA Eri ; ZHANG Shuo ; LI Tianjiao ; MAKITA Koshi ; SAWAMURA Shigehito ; KONNO Shin-ichi
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 慢性疼痛 / 磁気共鳴画像法 / オフセット鎮痛 / 内因性鎮痛機構 / 下行性疼痛抑制系 / 報酬系 / 機能的結合性 / 灰白質密度

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In a series of multimodal magnetic resonance imaging studies on chronic pain patients from diverse etiologies, we used a unique thermal pain stimulus paradigm including offset analgesia, one type of endogenous pain modulation. We found a significant attenuation of offset analgesia in patients, and its association with diminished activity at prime brain areas concerned with descending pain modulatory and reward systems in patients compared with healthy controls. We also found significant atrophy at the anterior insular cortex and associated reduction in its functional connectivity with the reward areas such as nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex. Functional connectivity showed dynamic alterations in connectivity among areas of emotional pain and descending pain modulation, which revealed enhanced emotional but decreased pain modulatory activities in chronic pain patients.

Free Research Field

麻酔科学、疼痛学