Chronic pain is a significant public health issue with serious medical and economic impacts; mechanisms underlying its generation and maintenance have long been a topic of study. Previous human and animal investigations have noted the presence of CNS low-threshold Ca++ spikes in pain states, but have not explained the global significance of this finding. Recently, it has been suggested that such spike bursts form the basis for abnormal thalamocortical dynamics which lead to a set of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders (including neurogenic pain), characterized by positive symptoms. We propose to use magnetoencephalographic recordings of spontaneous neuromagnetic activity in awake, alert subjects suffering from various types of chronic pain to test the hypothesis that some central pain is maintained by thalamocortical dysrhythmia. We intend to examine the frequencies, correlation among frequencies, and localization of abnormal activity in these subjects. We hypothesize that chronic pain patients will display thalamocortical oscillations in the theta (4-8 Hz) band, coupled with a widespread increase in coherence between oscillations in the theta and gamma (30-60 Hz) ranges. Furthermore, we hypothesize that structurally distinct areas of the brain which respond to painful stimuli will be activated in this condition.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31)
Project #
5F31NS042973-02
Application #
6555888
Study Section
Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience 8 (IFCN)
Program Officer
Porter, Linda L
Project Start
2002-09-01
Project End
Budget Start
2002-09-01
Budget End
2003-08-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$37,864
Indirect Cost
Name
New York University
Department
Physiology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10016
Jeanmonod, D; Schulman, J; Ramirez, R et al. (2003) Neuropsychiatric thalamocortical dysrhythmia: surgical implications. Neurosurg Clin N Am 14:251-65