Virtual needle pain stimuli activates cortical representation of emotions in normal volunteers.

Full Abstract

Psychological factors are known to play an extremely important role in the maintenance and development of chronic pain conditions. However, it is unclear how such factors relate to the central neural processing of nociceptive transmission in healthy individuals. To investigate this issue, the activation of the brain was studied in 30 healthy volunteers responding to virtual pain stimuli by fMRI. In the first series of the study (non-preconditioned study), 15 participants were shown a digital video demonstrating an injection needle puncturing the right palm. In the second series of the study (pre-conditioned study), same-task paradigms were used for another 15 participants. Prior to the fMRI session, real needle punctuate stimuli were applied to the right palm of participants for pre-conditioning. fMRI analysis revealed that bilateral activations in anterior insula (BA45), parietal operculum (S2: BA40), premotor area, medial globus pallidus, inferior occipital gyrus (BA18), left temporal association cortex, right fusiform gyrus, right parietal association cortex and cerebellum occurred due to the task in the preconditioned group. On the other hand, right parietal operculum (S2: BA40), premotor area, parietal association cortex, left inferior frontal gyrus and bilateral temporal association cortex were activated in the non-preconditioned group. In addition, activation of anterior insula, inferior frontal gyrus, precentral gyrus and cerebellum significantly increased in the preconditioned group compared with the non-preconditioned group. These results suggest that the virtual needle puncture task caused memory retrieval of unpleasant experiences which is possibly related to empathy for pain, resulting in the activation of specific brain areas.

Author information

Author/s: Ushida, Takahiro (T); Ikemoto, Tatsunori (T); Tanaka, Shigeki (S); Shinozaki, Jun (J); Taniguchi, Shinichirou (S); Murata, Yoriko (Y); McLaughlin, Matthew (M); Arai, Young-Chang P (YC); Tamura, Yurie (Y);

Affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kochi Medical School, Kochi, Japan. ushidat-koc(-atsign-)umin.ac.jp

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Neuroscience letters (Neurosci Lett), published in Ireland. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 439 (issue 1) : pp 7-12

Dates: Created 2008/06/09; Completed 2008/09/24;

PMID: 18502045, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.