Neurophysiological mediators of perceptual, motor and autonomic components of pain

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Markus Ploner
• Subject Area: Clinical Neurology; Neurosurgery and Neuroradiology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 317413324

Pain is commonly conceptualized as a perceptual phenomenon. However, the crucial protective function of pain not only depends on its perceptual component but also on appropriate motor and autonomic responses. Moreover, motor and autonomic processes are known to play an important role in the pathology and therapy of chronic pain. However, how the brain translates noxious stimuli into motor and autonomic responses is far less well studied and understood than its perceptual aspects. Moreover, it is still largely unknown whether changes of the brain representation of the different pain components are part of the cerebral pathology of chronic pain. The proposed project will comprehensively investigate how the brain translates painful stimuli into perceptual, motor and autonomic aspects of pain. We will specifically assess and compare this translation process not only during brief pain stimuli but also during longer-lasting painful stimulation, which is closer to ongoing pain in chronic pain conditions. We will therefore perform a series of experiments to assess perceptual, motor and autonomic responses to painful stimuli. Brain activity will be assessed by state-of-the-art time-frequency analyses of electroencephalographic recordings. To determine which spatial-temporal-spectral features of brain activity underlie the different pain components, mediation analyses will be performed. The analysis will yield comprehensive spatial-temporal-spectral maps of brain activity translating stimulus characteristics into perceptual, motor and autonomic components of pain. The comparison of these maps will reveal component-specific and component-independent aspects of brain activity related to brief and longer-lasting pain. The results of these analyses promise to advance our understanding of the brain processes underlying different components of pain on different time scales. Understanding these processes in healthy human subjects is an important basis for studying these processes and their changes in chronic pain patients.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Joachim Gross