Delineating the Brain Mechanisms Supporting Modulation of Pain by Meditation

描绘支持冥想调节疼痛的大脑机制

• 批准号: 8316704
• 负责人: Fadel Zeidan
• 金额: $ 5.77万
• 依托单位: WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-07-25 至 2014-07-24
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8316704
• 关键词: Absence of pain sensation; Affect; Affective; Analgesics; Anterior; Area; Attention; Attenuated; Brain; Brain imaging; Brain region; Clinical; Clinical Treatment; Cognitive; Development; Diagnosis; Evaluation; Event; Experimental Designs; Fellowship; Health; Human; Insula of Reil; Investigation; Laboratories; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Meditation; Pain; Pain intensity; Placebos; Process; Regimen; Reporting; Research; Research Personnel; Sensory; Spin Labels; Stimulus; Structure; Symptoms; Techniques; Testing; Time; Training; Translations; Work; career; cognitive control; conditioning; cost effective; design; emotion regulation; expectation; experience; frontal lobe; improved; insight; mindfulness; mindfulness meditation; neuroimaging; novel; response; somatosensory

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pain is a multidimensional experience that involves sensory, cognitive and affective mechanisms. The constellation of interactions between these factors makes the treatment of clinical pain challenging and often a financial burden. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to improve health, well being, and at the same time is cost-effective. Moreover, mindfulness meditation has been found to significantly improve pain symptoms in experimental and clinical settings. Unfortunately, these benefits have largely been demonstrated in those with extensive meditation training and practice. The utility of mindfulness meditation may prove more attractive if it is found to reduce pain after brief training. The brain mechanisms involved in meditation- related pain relief are largely unknown and require further investigation. Recent findings from our laboratory determined that meditation, after four days (20m/d) of training, dramatically reduced pain intensity by 40% and pain unpleasantness ratings by 57%. Employing an emerging MRI technique (arterial spin labeling), we found that meditation-related pain relief was associated with multiple brain mechanisms related to reductions in somatosensory brain activity and increases in brain regions involved in cognitive control, emotion regulation, and executive processing. However, it remains unknown if meditation engages brain mechanisms that are distinct from other pain modulatory processes that also involve cognitive factors. Indirect evidence suggests that meditation-related pain modulation is associated with activation of the anterior insular cortex, while placebo-related pain modulation is associated with reduced activation of this structure. Thus, the research proposed in this fellowship will test the hypothesis that meditation induced modulation of pain engages brain mechanisms that are distinct from those involved during placebo-related pain modulation. This fellowship will provide the applicant with comprehensive training in the investigation of human brain mechanisms of pain and multiple development opportunities that will facilitate transition to a career as an independent investigator.

描述（由申请人提供）：疼痛是一种多维体验，涉及感觉、认知和情感机制。这些因素之间的相互作用使得临床疼痛的治疗具有挑战性，并且常常成为经济负担。正念冥想已被证明可以改善健康和福祉，同时具有成本效益。此外，在实验和临床环境中，正念冥想被发现可以显着改善疼痛症状。不幸的是，这些好处在很大程度上已经在那些接受过广泛冥想训练和练习的人身上得到了证明。如果发现正念冥想在短暂训练后可以减轻疼痛，那么它的效用可能会更有吸引力。与冥想相关的疼痛缓解相关的大脑机制在很大程度上尚不清楚，需要进一步研究。我们实验室的最新研究结果表明，经过四天（20m/d）的训练后，冥想可显着降低 40% 的疼痛强度和 57% 的疼痛不适感。采用新兴的 MRI 技术（动脉自旋标记），我们发现与冥想相关的疼痛缓解与多种大脑机制相关，这些机制涉及体感大脑活动的减少以及涉及认知控制、情绪调节和执行处理的大脑区域的增加。然而，目前尚不清楚冥想是否涉及与其他也涉及认知因素的疼痛调节过程不同的大脑机制。间接证据表明，冥想相关的疼痛调节与岛叶前皮质的激活有关，而安慰剂相关的疼痛 调制与该结构的激活减少相关。因此，该奖学金提出的研究将检验这样的假设：冥想诱导的疼痛调节所涉及的大脑机制与安慰剂相关的疼痛调节所涉及的机制不同。该奖学金将为申请人提供人类大脑疼痛机制研究方面的全面培训，并提供多种发展机会，以促进其向独立研究者的职业生涯过渡。