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Quantifying Pain Location and Intensity with Multimodal Pain Body Diagrams
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Spatial sensory organization and body representation in pain perception
Patrick Haggard1, Gian Domenico Iannetti, Matthew R Longo
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, UK. p.haggard@ucl.ac.uk
Current Biology : CB
|February 23, 2013
Summary
Pain perception is linked to how the brain maps the body. Viewing the body, not objects, can reduce pain signals, suggesting pain involves body representation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Pain Research
- Somatosensory System
Background:
- Pain perception is a protective mechanism with a complex relationship to the brain's body representation.
- The nociceptive system utilizes peripheral afferents (Aδ and C nociceptors) across the body surface.
- The somatotopic organization of nociceptive information has been under-explored compared to its link with homeostatic regulation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review evidence on the somatotopic organization of nociceptive pathways in the primary somatosensory cortex.
- To explore the influence of body representation on pain perception.
- To investigate the potential of understanding body representation in pain for clinical applications.
Main Methods:
- Review of experimental studies on pain perception in humans and animals.
- Analysis of neurophysiological evidence for somatotopic maps of nociceptors.
- Examination of the effect of visual stimuli (viewing the body vs. objects) on pain processing.
Main Results:
- Evidence suggests Aδ skin nociceptors project to a somatotopic map in the primary somatosensory cortex.
- Pain perception is influenced by cognitive representations of the body, an effect termed 'visual analgesia'.
- Noxious stimulus coding and pain experience are modulated by activating body representations.
Conclusions:
- The somatotopic neural organization of pain systems is crucial for understanding pain plasticity and modulation.
- Pain perception shares representational properties with exteroceptive senses but uniquely represents the body itself.
- Linking pain to body representation may offer insights into clinical pain conditions, including chronic pain.
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