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(NAS Colloquium) The Neurobiology of Pain (1999) / Chapter Skim
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Pain Perception: Is There a Role for Primary Somatosensory Cortex?
Pages 7705-7709

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From page 7705...
... Table 1 shows the methods and results of a number of human brain imaging studies of pain, by using PET, single photonemission computed tomography, functional MRI, and magnetoencephalographic imaging. In the various studies, pain stimuli include phasic and tonic heat, cold, chemical irritants, electric shock, ischemia, visceral distension, headache, and neuropathic pain.
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From page 7706...
... Paulson et al. 40 17 41 42 43 44 45 SPECT PET H21so PET H21so PET H21sO PET H21so PET H21so fMRI 46 PET H21so 47 PET H21sO 48 PET H21so 49 f~RI 50 PET H215O Cluster headache Healthy Healthy Healthy Healthy Healthy Healthy Healthy Healthy Healthy Healthy Healthy Healthy 7 12 11 6 11 11 6 s Water bath Water bath Balloon CO2 laser Electrical stimulator CO2 laser Balloon 6 Thermode Capsaicin 7 Capsaicin 6 Electrical stimulator 10 Thermode, 254 mm2 Cold pressor 35, ~47°C Rectal distension Cutaneous Intramuscular Cutaneous Esophageal distension Ramp, 25-43°C Subcutaneous arm Subcutaneous forehead Finger, 8 Hz 40 & 50°C Yes Yes No Yes, ns Yes, ns Yes Yes No No No Yes No ns, not significant; SPECT, single photon-emission computed tomography; fMRI, functional MRI; MEG, magnetoencephalographic imaging.
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From page 7707...
... During these four scans, the subjects were simply instructed to relax and attend to the thermal stimulus a control situation for identifying regions that could be examined for modulation related to hypnotic suggestions given in subsequent scans. Although subjects in the two hypnosis experiments produced similar ratings of pain intensity and unpleasantness during these control scans, those previously trained to attend to the intensity of the painful stimuli showed substantially greater pain-related activity in S1 than did those who had been trained to attend to the unpleasantness of those stimuli trig.
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From page 7708...
... Thus, when a painful stimulus is presented in a human brain imaging study, the net effect of exciting some neurons and inhibiting the spontaneous activity of others could have different effects on rCBF (as measured by PET) or on venous blood oxygenation (as measured by functional MRI)
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From page 7709...
... Despite the wide methodological and analytical variation in human brain imaging studies of pain, there is surprising consistency in the activation of a number of brain regions, including anterior cingulate and insular cortices. Although the observation of pain-related activation in S1 is somewhat less consistent, the fact that at least half of the human brain imaging studies have identified significant activation of this region when subjects perceive pain suggests that S1 has a significant role in nociceptive processing.
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Key Terms

  • pain perception
  • imaging studies
  • healthy healthy
  • brain imaging
  • painful stimulus

  • functional mri
  • human brain
  • pet data
  • pain intensity
  • significant activation

  • water bath
  • auditory task
  • focal activation
  • somatosensory cortex
  • cortical lesions

  • nociceptive neurons
  • data recorded
  • primary somatosensory
  • somatotopic organization
  • electrical nerve

  • heat stimulus
  • circles surround
  • noxious heat
  • nociceptive input
  • red circles

  • blood flow
  • unpublished observations
  • electrical stimulator
  • nerve stimulator
  • noxious stimuli


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