• Fear of pain
• Hyperalgesia
• Hypoalgesia
• Individual variability
• Stress responsivenes

• 2615/21 Israel Science Foundation
• PGS23/100079 Rosetrees Trust

• Pleasant touch
• Prefrontal cortex
• Somatosensory
• Tactile stimulation
• fNIRS

• Humans
• Male
• Female
• Adult
• Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared/methods
• Touch Perception/physiology
• Prefrontal Cortex/physiology
• Touch/physiology
• Young Adult
• Physical Stimulation/methods
• Hemodynamics/physiology
• Pleasure/physiology
• Emotions/physiology

• mechanism of action
• mindfulness
• pain
• systematic review

• Humans
• Mindfulness/methods
• Pain Management/methods
• Meditation/methods
• Meditation/psychology
• Chronic Pain/therapy
• Chronic Pain/psychology
• Brain/physiopathology

• Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations
• Chronic pain
• Functional near-infrared spectroscopy
• Resting-state functional connectivity
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation

• Humans
• Female
• Prefrontal Cortex/physiopathology
• Prefrontal Cortex/diagnostic imaging
• Chronic Pain/therapy
• Chronic Pain/physiopathology
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation/methods
• Adult
• Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared/methods
• Aged
• Rest/physiology
• Pain Measurement
• Brain Mapping/methods

• [2020]NQ06128 Military High-level Scientific and Technological Innovation Talent Project
• 2024XA0004 Changhai Hospital Clincal New Technology Incubation Project
• 62371300 National Natural Science Foundation of China

• Chronical pain
• interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy
• neurocognition
• neuropsychological therapy
• subjective cognitive deficits

• Humans
• Chronic Pain/complications
• Chronic Pain/diagnosis
• Reproducibility of Results
• Neuropsychological Tests
• Executive Function/physiology
• Cognition/physiology

• Cognition
• Distraction analgesia
• Formalin
• Infralimbic cortex
• Pain

• Rats
• Male
• Animals
• Pain Management
• Pain Measurement
• Pain
• Analgesia
• Formaldehyde

• anxiety
• arterial blood gas
• emergency department
• nocebo
• pain
• positive therapeutic communication
• therapeutic communication

• brain development
• electroencephalography
• habituation
• microstates
• pain
• preterm neonates
• sensory processing

The thalamus plays a crucial role in transmitting nociceptive information to various cortical regions involving migraine-related allodynia and photophobia. Abnormal structural and functional alterations related to the thalamus have been well established. However, it is unknown whether the brain structure and function of the thalamic subregions are differentially affected in this disorder. In this study, we aimed to clarify this issue by comparing the structure and function of 16 thalamic subregions between patients with episodic migraine (EM) and healthy controls (HCs).

Twenty-seven patients with EM and 30 sex-, age- and education-matched HCs underwent resting-state functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging scans. Functional connectivity (rsFC), grey matter volume (GMV), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) parameters of each subregion of the thalamus were calculated and compared between the two groups. Furthermore, correlation analyses between neuroimaging changes and clinical features were performed in this study.

First, compared with HCs, patients with EM exhibited decreased rsFC between the anterior-medial-posterior subregions of the thalamus and brain regions mainly involved in the medial system of the pain processing pathway and default mode network (DMN). Second, for the whole thalamus and each of its subregions, there were no significant differences in GMV between patients with EM and HCs (P > 0.05, Bonferroni corrected). Third, there was no significant difference in DTI parameters between the two groups (P > 0.05). Finally, decreased rsFC was closely related to scores on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAMA) and Big Five Inventory (BFI) scales.

Selective functional hypoconnectivity in the thalamic subregions provides neuroimaging evidence supporting the important role of thalamocortical pathway dysfunction in episodic migraine, specifically, that it may modulate emotion and different personality traits in migraine patients.

Real-time fMRI (rt-fMRI) enables self-regulation of neural activity in localized brain regions through neurofeedback. Previous studies showed successful up- and down-regulation of neural activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the insula (Ins) during nociceptive stimulation. Such self-regulation capacity is, however, variable across subjects, possibly related to the ability of cognitive top-down control of pain. Moreover, how specific brain areas interact to enable successful regulation of nociceptive processing and neurofeedback-based brain modulation is not well understood. A connectivity analysis framework in the frequency domain was used to examine the up- or down-regulation in the ACC and Ins and pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings were assessed. We found that successful up- and down-regulation was mediated by the ACC and by its functional connectivity with the Ins and secondary somatosensory cortex. There was no significant relationship between successful up- or downregulation and pain ratings. These findings demonstrate functional interactions between brain areas involved in nociceptive processing during regulation of ACC and Ins activity, and the relevance of the frequency domain connectivity analysis for real-time fMRI. Moreover, despite successful neural regulation, there was no change in pain ratings, suggesting that pain is a complex perception, which may be more difficult to modify than other sensory or emotional processes.

• Humans
• Chronic Pain/diagnosis
• Chronic Pain/therapy
• Cognition
• Automobile Driving/psychology
• Cognition Disorders/diagnosis
• Cognition Disorders/psychology
• Cognitive Dysfunction
• Neuropsychological Tests

• Medizinische Fakultät Heidelberg der Universität Heidelberg (9149)

• Chronic pain
• Functional network
• Graph theory analysis
• Rich-club organization
• Structural network
• Trigeminal neuralgia

• Brain networks
• Disparities
• Pain
• Racism
• Social threat

• R01 HL147603 NHLBI NIH HHS
• R01 MD010441 NIMHD NIH HHS
• T32 HS013852 AHRQ HHS

• G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)
• chronic pain
• fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy (FCCS)
• opioid
• serotonin

• Conditioned pain modulation
• Dementia
• Diffusion tensor imaging
• Facial expression of pain
• Pain
• Voxel-based morphometry

This study was designed to investigate the neural mechanism of cognitive modulation of pain via a reappraisal strategy with high temporal resolution. The EEG signal was recorded from 29 participants who were instructed to down-regulate, up-regulate, or maintain their pain experience. The L2 minimum norm source reconstruction method was used to localize areas in which a significant effect of the instruction was present. Down-regulating pain by reappraisal exerted a robust effect on pain processing from as early as ~100 ms that diminished the activity of limbic brain regions: the anterior cingulate cortex, right orbitofrontal cortex, left anterior temporal region, and left insula. However, compared with the no-regulation condition, the neural activity was similarly attenuated in the up- and down-regulation conditions. We suggest that this effect could be ascribed to the cognitive load that was associated with the execution of a cognitively demanding reappraisal task that could have produced a general attenuation of pain-related areas regardless of the aim of the reappraisal task (i.e., up- or down-regulation attempts). These findings indicate that reappraisal effects reflect the joint influence of both reappraisal-specific (cognitive change) and unspecific (cognitive demand) factors, thus pointing to the importance of cautiously selected control conditions that allow the modulating impact of both processes to be distinguished.

• Cognitive demand
• Cognitive reappraisal
• EEG source localization
• Pain

• Brain connectome
• Functional constipation
• Graph-theory approach
• Modularity
• Resting-state fMRI

• modularity
• anxiety/depression
• brain connectome
• functional constipation
• graph-theory approach
• resting-state fMRI

• Attention training technique
• EEG
• divided attention
• metacognitive therapy
• source localization

• Opponent processes
• Pain habituation
• Pain tolerance
• Suicide
• Violent video games

Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) evaluates the effect of a painful conditioning stimulus (CS) on a painful test stimulus (TS). Using painful cutaneous electrical stimulation (PCES) as TS and painful cold water as CS, the pain relief was paralleled by a decrease in evoked potentials (PCES-EPs). We now aimed to compare the effect of CPM with cognitive distraction on PCES-induced pain and PCES-EP amplitudes.

PCES was performed using surface electrodes inducing a painful sensation of 60 (NRS 0–100) on one hand. In a crossover design healthy subjects (included: n = 38, analyzed: n = 23) immersed the contralateral hand into 10 °C cold water (CS) for CPM evaluation and performed the 1-back task for cognitive distraction. Before and during the CS and 1-back task, respectively, subjects rated the pain intensity of PCES and simultaneously cortical evoked potentials were recorded.

Both CPM and cognitive distraction significantly reduced PCES-EP amplitudes (CPM: 27.6 ± 12.0 μV to 20.2 ± 9.5 μV, cognitive distraction: 30.3 ± 14.2 µV to 13.6 ± 5.2 μV, p < 0.001) and PCES-induced pain (on a 0–100 numerical rating scale: CPM: 58 ± 4 to 41.1 ± 12.3, cognitive distraction: 58.3 ± 4.4 to 38.0 ± 13.0, p < 0.001), though the changes in pain intensity and PCES-amplitude did not correlate. The changes of the PCES-EP amplitudes during cognitive distraction were more pronounced than during CPM (p = 0.001).

CPM and cognitive distraction reduced the PCES-induced pain to a similar extent. The more pronounced decrease of PCES-EP amplitudes after distraction by a cognitive task implies that both conditions might not represent the general pain modulatory capacity of individuals, but may underlie different neuronal mechanisms with the final common pathway of perceived pain reduction.

• Cognitive distraction
• Conditioned pain modulation
• Pain mechanisms
• Painful cutaneous electrical stimulation

Mindfulness training ameliorates clinical and self-report measures of depression and chronic pain, but its use as an emotion regulation strategy—in individuals who do not meditate—remains understudied. As such, whether it (i) down-regulates early affective brain processes or (ii) depends on cognitive control systems remains unclear. We exposed meditation-naïve participants to two kinds of stimuli: negative vs. neutral images and painful vs. warm temperatures. On alternating blocks, we asked participants to either react naturally or exercise mindful acceptance. Emotion regulation using mindful acceptance was associated with reductions in reported pain and negative affect, reduced amygdala responses to negative images and reduced heat-evoked responses in medial and lateral pain systems. Critically, mindful acceptance significantly reduced activity in a distributed, a priori neurologic signature that is sensitive and specific to experimentally induced pain. In addition, these changes occurred in the absence of detectable increases in prefrontal control systems. The findings support the idea that momentary mindful acceptance regulates emotional intensity by changing initial appraisals of the affective significance of stimuli, which has consequences for clinical treatment of pain and emotion.

• acceptance
• emotion regulation
• fMRI
• mindfulness
• pain

• Acupuncture Therapy/methods
• Bias
• Humans
• Outcome Assessment, Health Care
• Pain/classification
• Pain Management
• Pain Measurement
• Psychometrics/methods
• Quality of Life
• Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
• Research Design

Traditional psychometric measures aimed at characterizing the pain experience often show considerable overlap, due to interlinked affective and modulatory processes under central nervous system control. Neuroimaging studies have been employed to investigate this complexity of pain processing, in an attempt to provide a quantifiable, adjunctive description of pain perception. In this exploratory study, we examine psychometric and neuroimaging data from 38 patients with painful osteoarthritis of the carpometacarpal joint. We had two aims: first, to utilize principal component analysis (PCA) as a dimension reduction strategy across multiple self‐reported endpoints of pain, cognitive and affective functioning; second, to investigate the relationship between identified dimensions and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) as an indirect measure of brain activity underpinning their ongoing pain experiences.

Psychometric data were collected using validated questionnaires. Quantitative estimates of rCBF were acquired using pseudo‐continuous arterial spin‐labelled functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Two principal components were identified that accounted for 73% of data variance; one related to pain scores and a second to psychological traits. Voxel‐wise multiple regression analysis revealed a significant negative association between the ‘pain score’ component and rCBF to a right temporal lobe cluster, including the amygdala and the parahippocampal cortex.

We suggest this association may represent a coping mechanism that aims to reduce fear‐related pain‐anxiety. Further investigation of central brain processing mechanisms in osteoarthritis‐related pain may offer insights into more effective therapeutic strategies.

This study demonstrates that dimension reduction using PCA allows insight into pain perception and its affective components in relation to brain activation patterns in patients with painful hand osteoarthritis.

• Conscious awareness
• Consciousness
• Expectancy
• Intellectual disability
• Priming

Theta oscillation (4–7 Hz) is well documented for its association with neural processes of memory. Pronounced increase of theta activity is commonly observed in patients with chronic neurogenic pain. However, its association with encoding of pain experience in patients with chronic pain is still unclear. The goal of the present study is to investigate the theta encoding of sensory and emotional information of long-term menstrual pain in women with primary dysmenorrhea (PDM). Forty-six young women with PDM and 46 age-matched control subjects underwent resting-state magnetoencephalography study during menstrual and periovulatory phases. Our results revealed increased theta activity in brain regions of pain processing in women with PDM, including the right parahippocampal gyrus, right posterior insula, and left anterior/middle cingulate gyrus during the menstrual phase and the left anterior insula and the left middle/inferior temporal gyrus during the periovulatory phase. The correlations between theta activity and the psychological measures pertaining to pain experience (depression, state anxiety, and pain rating index) implicate the role of theta oscillations in emotional and sensory processing of pain. The present study provides evidence for the role of theta oscillations in encoding the immediate and sustained effects of pain experience in young women with PDM.

• Acupuncture
• Anxiety
• Appetitive motivation
• Belief
• Brain mechanisms
• Clinical practice
• Conditioning
• Descending pain modulation
• Emotion
• Invasive placebo
• Learning
• Pain
• Pain anticipation
• Placebo administration
• Placebo effects
• RCTs
• Reward expectation
• Route of administration
• Sham invasive procedure
• Verbal suggestion

Many factors can influence the way in which we perceive painful events and noxious stimuli, but less is known about how pain perception is altered by explicit knowledge about the impending sensation. This study aimed to investigate the impact of explicit cueing on anxiety, arousal, and pain experience during the anticipation and delivery of noxious thermal heat stimulations. Fifty-two healthy volunteers were randomised to receive explicit instructions about visual cue-stimulus temperature pairings, or no explicit instructions about the cue-stimulus pairs. A pain anxiety task was used to investigate the effects of explicit cueing on anticipatory anxiety, pain experience and electrophysiological responses. Participants who received explicit instructions about the cue-stimulus pairs (i.e., the relationship between the colour of the cue and the temperature of the associated stimuli) reported significantly higher subjective anxiety prior to the delivery of the thermal heat stimuli (p = .025, partial eta squared = .10). There were no effects of explicit cueing on subsequent pain intensity, unpleasantness, or the electrophysiological response to stimulus delivery. The perceived intensity and unpleasantness of the stimuli decreased across the blocks of the paradigm. In both groups anticipating the ambiguous cue elicited the largest change in electrophysiological arousal, indicating that not knowing the impending stimulus temperature led to increased arousal, compared to being certain of receiving a high temperature thermal stimulus (both p < .001). Perceived stimulus intensity varied between ambiguous and non-ambiguous cues, depending on the temperature of the stimulus. Together these findings highlight the impact and importance of explicit cueing and uncertainty in experimental pain studies, and how these factors influence the way healthy individuals perceive and react to noxious and innocuous thermal stimuli.

Humans experience more stress about uncertain situations than certain situations. However, the neural mechanism underlying the uncertainty of a negative stimulus has not been determined. In the present study, event-related potential was recorded to examine neural responses during the dread of unpredictable pain. We used a cueing paradigm in which predictable cues were always followed by electric shocks, unpredictable cues by electric shocks at a 50/50 ratio and safe cues by no electric shock. Visual analogue scales following electric shocks were presented to quantify subjective anxiety levels. The behavioral results showed that unpredictable cues evoked high-level anxiety compared with predictable cues in both painful and unpainful stimulation conditions. More importantly, the ERPs results revealed that unpredictable cues elicited a larger P200 at parietal sites than predictable cues. In addition, unpredictable cues evoked larger P200 compared with safe cues at frontal electrodes and compared with predictable cues at parietal electrodes. In addition, larger P3b and LPP were observed during perception of safe cues compared with predictable cues at frontal and central electrodes. The similar P3b effect was also revealed in the left sites. The present study underlined that the uncertain dread of pain was associated with threat appraisal process in pain system. These findings on early event-related potentials were significant for a neural marker and development of therapeutic interventions.

• fMRI
• mindfulness meditation
• opioid
• pain
• placebo

• bipolar disorder
• cingulate cortex
• evoked potentials
• insula
• pain
• psychosis
• salience network
• schizophrenia
• somatosensory cortex

Expectancy is widely accepted as a key contributor to placebo effects. However, it is not known whether non‐conscious expectancies achieved through semantic priming may contribute to placebo analgesia. In this study, we investigated if an implicit priming procedure, where participants were unaware of the intended priming influence, affected placebo analgesia.

In a double‐blind experiment, healthy participants (n = 36) were randomized to different implicit priming types; one aimed at increasing positive expectations and one neutral control condition. First, pain calibration (thermal) and a credibility demonstration of the placebo analgesic device were performed. In a second step, an independent experimenter administered the priming task; Scrambled Sentence Test. Then, pain sensitivity was assessed while telling participants that the analgesic device was either turned on (placebo) or turned off (baseline). Pain responses were recorded on a 0–100 Numeric Response Scale.

Overall, there was a significant placebo effect (p < 0.001), however, the priming conditions (positive/neutral) did not lead to differences in placebo outcome. Prior experience of pain relief (during initial pain testing) correlated significantly with placebo analgesia (p < 0.001) and explained 34% of placebo variance. Trait neuroticism correlated positively with placebo analgesia (p < 0.05) and explained 21% of placebo variance.

Priming is one of many ways to influence behaviour, and non‐conscious activation of positive expectations could theoretically affect placebo analgesia. Yet, we found no SST priming effect on placebo analgesia. Instead, our data point to the significance of prior experience of pain relief, trait neuroticism and social interaction with the treating clinician.

Our findings challenge the role of semantic priming as a behavioural modifier that may shape expectations of pain relief, and affect placebo analgesia.

• Anterior cingulate cortex
• Chronic pain
• Cytokines
• Descending pain inhibition
• Insula
• Lipopolysaccharide
• Pre-frontal cortex
• Sickness behavior
• fMRI

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Cytokines/blood
• Female
• Gyrus Cinguli/diagnostic imaging
• Gyrus Cinguli/physiopathology
• Humans
• Inflammation/blood
• Inflammation/chemically induced
• Interoception/physiology
• Lipopolysaccharides/administration & dosage
• Lipopolysaccharides/pharmacology
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Pain/diagnostic imaging
• Pain/etiology
• Pain/physiopathology
• Pain Perception/physiology
• Prefrontal Cortex/diagnostic imaging
• Prefrontal Cortex/physiopathology
• Random Allocation
• Sex Factors
• Young Adult

• functional magnetic resonance imaging
• medial prefrontal cortex
• regional homogeneity
• resting state
• somatic symptom disorder

Competition for prioritization between basic motivational states, such as pain and thirst, is thought to inhibit the currently nonprioritized state. We show that thirst can reduce pain in humans, whereas at the same time enhance pain through increased negative mood.

Introduction: Although the motivation to avoid injury and pain is central to human and animal behavior, this goal compete priority with other homeostatic goals. Animal studies have shown that competing motivational states, such as thirst, reduce pain. However, such states may also induce negative mood, which in humans has been found to increase pain. These opposing effects complicate study of the effects of motivational states in humans.

Objectives: To evaluate concurrent effects of motivational state competition and mood on pain ratings.

Methods: We compared a thirst challenge against a control group and measured thirst and mood as potential mediators. Pain induced through contact heat stimulation on the left forearm and was tested at 3 time points: before group randomization, after thirst induction, and after rehydration.

Results: Overall, the thirst group reported more pain when thirsty compared with baseline and controls. Mediation analyses showed evidence for two opposing effects. First, the thirst challenge increased negative mood and thirstiness, which was related to increased pain. Second, the thirst challenge produced a direct, pain-reducing effect.

Conclusion: Competing motivational states reduce pain but also induce concurrent mood changes that can mask motivational state-related effects.

• Emotion
• Mood
• Motivation
• Motivation-Decision Model
• Pain
• Thirst

Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in healthy controls (HC) and pain-free migraine patients found activations to pain-related words in brain regions known to be activated while subjects experience pain. The aim of the present study was to identify neural activations induced by pain-related words in a sample of chronic back pain (CBP) patients experiencing current chronic pain compared to HC. In particular, we were interested in how current pain influences brain activations induced by pain-related adjectives. Subjects viewed pain-related, negative, positive, and neutral words; subjects were asked to generate mental images related to these words during fMRI scanning. Brain activation was compared between CBP patients and HC in response to the different word categories and examined in relation to current pain in CBP patients. Pain-related words vs. neutral words activated a network of brain regions including cingulate cortex and insula in subjects and patients. There was stronger activation in medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior midcingulate cortex in CPB patients than in HC. The magnitude of activation for pain-related vs. negative words showed a negative linear relationship to CBP patients’ current pain. Our findings confirm earlier observations showing that pain-related words activate brain networks similar to noxious stimulation. Importantly, CBP patients show even stronger activation of these structures while merely processing pain-related words. Current pain directly influences on this activation.

• chronic back pain
• current pain
• fMRI
• semantic processing

• Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation
• Hopelessness theory
• Major depression disorder
• Resting state
• Trait depression
• fMRI

• Adolescent
• Case-Control Studies
• Cerebral Cortex/physiopathology
• Cognition/physiology
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Depressive Disorder, Major/physiopathology
• Female
• Humans
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Male
• Neuroimaging
• Prefrontal Cortex/physiopathology
• Temporal Lobe/physiopathology
• Young Adult

• Animals
• Brain/metabolism
• Diagnostic Imaging/methods
• Humans
• Pain/diagnosis
• Pain/metabolism
• Pain Measurement/methods
• Perception/physiology

• Cognitive tasks
• cold pain
• limited capacity model
• spatial judgment
• stroop

There is ample evidence that dementia changes the processing of pain. However, it is not known whether this change in pain processing is related to the general decline in cognitive functioning or whether it may be related to specific domains of cognitive functioning. With the present study we tried to answer this question. We assessed different cognitive domains (orientation, memory, abstract thinking/executive function, aphasia and apraxia, and information processing speed) in 70 older patients with cognitive impairment (mild cognitive impairment up to moderate degrees of dementia). Pain responsiveness was assessed by measuring the nociceptive flexion reflex (NFR) threshold and facial responses to noxious electrical stimulation. Using regression analyses, we assessed which domain of cognitive functioning best predicted variance in pain responsiveness. Variance in pain responsiveness (NFR and facial expressions) was best explained by those items assessing executive functioning even when controlling for overall cognitive performance and memory functioning. The close association between executive functioning and pain responsiveness suggests that dementia-related neurodegeneration in prefrontal areas might result not only in reduced executive functioning but also in a loss of pain inhibitory potency, rendering the patient more vulnerable to pain. Our findings also suggest that pain assessment in dementia should be regularly completed by tests of cognitive functions.

• Anterior cingulate cortex
• Deep brain stimulation
• Precuneus
• Targeting
• Tractography

• ROC curve
• TBSS
• VBM
• brain
• functional dyspepsia

The mechanisms causing cognitive problems in chronic pain patients are not well understood. We used the Stroop color word task (SCWT) to investigate distraction-induced analgesia, cognitive performance, and cerebral activation patterns in 29 fibromyalgia (FM) patients (mean age 49.8 years, range 25–64 years) and 31 healthy controls (HC) (mean age 46.3 years, range 20–63 years). In the first study, SCWT was used to investigate distraction-induced analgesia in FM patients. Two versions of the task were applied, one with only congruent color-word images and one with incongruent images. Pressure pain thresholds were assessed using a pressure algometer before, during, and following SCWT. In the second study, reaction times (RTs) were assessed and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate cerebral activation patterns in FM patients and HC during the SCWT. An event-related task mixing incongruent and congruent images was used. In study one, we found reduced pressure pain sensitivity during SCWT in both groups alike and no statistically significant differences were seen between the incongruent and congruent conditions. The study two revealed longer RTs during the incongruent compared to the congruent condition in both groups. FM patients had longer RTs than HC in both conditions. Furthermore, we found a significant interaction between group and congruency; that is, the group differences in RTs were more pronounced during the incongruent condition. This was reflected in a reduced activation of the caudate nucleus, lingual gyrus, temporal areas, and the hippocampus in FM patients compared to HC. In conclusion, we found normal pain inhibition during SWTC in FM patients. The cognitive difficulties seen in FM patients, reflected in longer RTs, were related to reduced activation of the caudate nucleus and hippocampus during incongruent SCWT, which most likely affected the mechanisms of cognitive learning in FM patients.

• Adult
• Blood Pressure/physiology
• Brain Mapping
• Case-Control Studies
• Caudate Nucleus/physiopathology
• Cognition Disorders/physiopathology
• Cohort Studies
• Female
• Fibromyalgia/physiopathology
• Heart Rate/physiology
• Hippocampus/physiopathology
• Humans
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Middle Aged
• Pain/physiopathology
• Pain Threshold/physiology
• Reaction Time/physiology
• Stroop Test
• Young Adult