fMRI of Pain

The field of pain research has progressed immensely due to the advancement of brain imaging techniques. The initial goal of this research was to expand our understanding of the cerebral mechanisms underlying the perception of pain; more recently the research objectives have shifted toward chronic pain – understanding its origins, developing methods for its diagnosis, and exploring potential avenues for its treatment. While several different neuroimaging approaches have certain advantages for the study of pain, fMRI has ultimately become the most widely utilized imaging technique over the past decade because of its noninvasive nature, high-temporal and spatial resolution, and general availability; thus, the following chapter will focus on fMRI and the special aspects of this technique that are particular to pain research. Subheading 1 begins with a brief review on the spinal pathways and neuroanatomical regions involved in pain processing, and highlights the novel information that has been gained about these structures and their function through the use of fMRI and other neuroimaging techniques. Subheading 2 reviews a few of the aspects associated with the blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal commonly used in fMRI, as they apply to the particular challenges of pain research. Likewise, Subheading 3 summarizes some of the special considerations of experimental design and statistical analysis that are encountered in pain research and their applications to fMRI studies. Subheading 4 reviews special applications of fMRI for the study of higher cognitive processes implicated in pain processing, including pain empathy and cognitive reappraisal of one’s own pain perception. The chapter concludes with Subheading 5 , exploring some of the future prospects of fMRI techniques and new applications related to pain research.