Chronic pain causes changes in its activity
A study demonstrates for the first time that chronic pain of neuropathic origin causes changes in the activity of the orbitofrontal cortex of the human brain.
“In the past, functional magnetic resonance imaging has shown that the anterior cingulate cortex and orbitofrontal cortex regions are activated during acute pain experiments. We were interested in seeing if these areas play a role in how the brain processes chronic pain,” explains Prasad Shirvalkar of the University of California at San Francisco, first name of the study published in Nature Neuroscience.
The data collected concerned 4 subjects, 3 with post-stroke pain and 1 with phantom limb pain who had been implanted with intracranial electrodes, and the observation period ranged from 3 to 6 months.
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