Spontaneous pain and brain activity in neuropathic pain: functional MRI and phar

[Guest guest]

Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2007 Jun;11(3):171-7.

Spontaneous pain and brain activity in neuropathic pain: functional

MRI and pharmacologic functional MRI studies.

Baliki MN, Geha PY, Apkarian AV.

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of

Physiology, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.

Functional brain imaging studies in chronic neuropathic pain

patients have lagged far behind equivalent studies in acute pain. In

the past few years, this trend has begun to shift. This article

discusses the novel approach of studying brain activity for

spontaneous pain and its modulation by pharmacologic manipulation.

We argue that the approach provides a solid methodology for

studying clinical (especially neuropathic) pain and patient

populations, and moreover, that the latest results using this

approach imply that distinct clinical chronic pain conditions seem

to involve specific brain circuitry, which is also distinct from the

brain activity commonly observed in acute pain.