Brain Imaging of Experimental Pain

实验性疼痛的脑成像

• 批准号: RTI-2023-00096
• 负责人: Roy, Mathieu
• 金额: $ 9.87万
• 依托单位: McGill University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=764132
• 关键词: Brain; Imaging; Experimental; Pain

The long-term objective of my research is to understand how the brain produces pain, and the behaviors associated with it. To study pain, studies in my lab generally induce pain in healthy participants using thermal or electrical stimulations. We seek funding to urgently replace two thermal stimulators and purchase one additional thermal stimulator and two additional electrical stimulators. My lab has grown exponentially since my arrival at McGill in 2016, and currently trains a total of 24 graduate, undergraduate and post-doctoral students. We also share equipment with > 7 collaborators in Montreal. Limited access to thermal and electrical stimulators creates a bottleneck that now severely impairs the capacity of my trainees to efficiently conduct their research projects. Research in the lab aims at studying the impact of various psychological variables on pain such as emotions, expectations, attention and motivation. For the next 5-year cycle of research, research in my lab will focus on, but not be restricted to, the study of the pain-reducing effects of performing a demanding cognitive task on pain perception. Every second, we are bombarded with a multitude of sensory inputs from the environment or from our body, but our brains can only process a fraction of that information at any given time. Subjectively perceived pain should therefore be conceived as the result of the competition between incoming nociceptive signals and other valued activities for access to limited cognitive resources. One prominent model of consciousness is the Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW). According to the GNW model, the content of consciousness is determined by the nature of the information that reaches a fronto-parietal "global workspace". Our general hypothesis is that perceived pain results from the competition between pain and task "neurosignatures" for access to the GNW. The proposed program of research centers around 3 studies examining different facets of pain-cognition interactions. Study 1 will investigate the analgesic effects of the cognitive load and value of a concurrent working memory task. Study 2 will examine how cognitive fatigue reduces the motivation to perform a concurrent working memory task and the associated analgesia. Finally, study 3 will examine how performing a passionate activity potentiates the analgesic effect of performing a concurrent cognitive task. The proposed experiments will provide a better understanding of the dynamic cerebral processes causing our conscious experience pain, and how to potentially control it.

我研究的长期目标是了解大脑如何产生疼痛以及与之相关的行为。为了研究疼痛，我实验室的研究通常使用热或电刺激来诱发健康参与者的疼痛。我们寻求资金紧急更换两台热刺激器，并购买一台额外的热刺激器和两台额外的电刺激器。自 2016 年来到麦吉尔以来，我的实验室呈指数级增长，目前总共培养了 24 名研究生、本科生和博士后。我们还与蒙特利尔的超过 7 个合作者共享设备。热刺激器和电刺激器的使用有限造成了一个瓶颈，现在严重损害了我的学员有效开展研究项目的能力。实验室的研究旨在研究情绪、期望、注意力和动机等各种心理变量对疼痛的影响。在下一个 5 年的研究周期中，我的实验室的研究将集中于（但不限于）研究执行高要求的认知任务对疼痛感知的减轻疼痛效果。每秒钟，我们都会受到来自环境或身体的大量感官输入的轰炸，但我们的大脑在任何给定时间只能处理其中的一小部分信息。因此，主观感知的疼痛应该被视为传入的伤害性信号与其他有价值的活动之间争夺有限认知资源的竞争结果。一种重要的意识模型是全局神经元工作空间（GNW）。根据 GNW 模型，意识的内容由到达额顶叶“全局工作空间”的信息的性质决定。我们的一般假设是，感知到的疼痛是疼痛与任务“神经特征”之间争夺 GNW 的竞争的结果。拟议的研究计划围绕三项研究进行，这些研究检查了疼痛与认知相互作用的不同方面。研究 1 将调查认知负荷的镇痛效果和并发工作记忆任务的价值。研究 2 将研究认知疲劳如何降低执行并发工作记忆任务的动力以及相关的镇痛作用。最后，研究 3 将研究进行一项充满激情的活动如何增强同时进行认知任务的镇痛效果。拟议的实验将有助于更好地理解导致我们有意识体验疼痛的动态大脑过程，以及如何潜在地控制它。