visualization of painful experiences believed to trigger the activation of affective and emotional brain regions in subjects with low back pain可视化的痛苦经历认为触发情感和情绪的激活的大脑区域与下腰痛科目.pdfVIP

Visualization of Painful Experiences Believed to Trigger the Activation of Affective and Emotional Brain Regions in Subjects with Low Back Pain 1 2 3 1 1 Kazuhiro Shimo , Takefumi Ueno , Jarred Younger , Makoto Nishihara , Shinsuke Inoue , Tatsunori 4 5 1,5 Ikemoto , Shinichirou Taniguchi , Takahiro Ushida * 1 Multidisciplinary Pain Center, Aichi Medical University, Aichi, Japan, 2 Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, 3 Department of Anesthesia, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America, 4 NPO Pain Medicine Research Information Center, Kochi, Japan, 5 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kochi Medical School, Kochi, Japan Abstract In the management of clinical low back pain (LBP), actual damage to lower back areas such as muscles, intervertebral discs etc. are normally targeted for therapy. However, LBP may involve not only sensory pain, but also underlying affective pain which may also play an important role overall in painful events. Therefore we hypothesized that visualization of a painful event may trigger painful memories, thus provoking the affective dimension of pain. The present study investigated neural correlates of affect processing in subjects with LBP (n = 11) and subjects without LBP (n = 11) through the use of virtual LBP stimuli. Whole brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed for all subjects while they were shown a picture of a man carrying luggage in a half-crouching position. All subjects with LBP reported experiencing discomfort and 7 LBP subjects reported experiencing pain. In contrast to subjects without LBP, subjects with LBP displayed activation of