1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Investigation of Pain Processing in the Human Somatosensory Cortex

Abstract

The perception of pain is an adaptive trait critical to survival. Prolonged painful stimulation in the form of chronic pain, however, can be maladaptive and cause significant physical and emotional distress. Indeed, chronic pain is linked to substantial health and economic burdens. To improve pain-related outcomes and to advance the field’s understanding of the neurochemical mechanisms of normative pain processing, the current study used functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS) to investigate glutamate and γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels in the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) in response to acute, pressure-based pain. Additionally, the current study investigated the link between pain physiology and perception by assessing the relationship between pain-related neurometabolites and subjective pain ratings. Data suggest that pain was not associated with changes in either glutamate or GABA. Further, linear regressions did not reveal any predictive relationship between glutamate or GABA and subjective pain ratings. Finally, statistical analysis revealed a significant reduction in total creatine levels pre- versus post-task. These data add to the growing corpus of spectroscopic pain literature and to the gap in current literature regarding the role of SI in normative pain processing.