The role of learning, stress and underlying brain circuits involving prefrontal-limbic interactions in the development of chronic back pain (B03)

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This project will examine appetitive and aversive emotional learning as well as reward processing and associated brain circuits in the development of chronic back pain. The relationship to stress and comorbidity with mental disorder will be a special focus. In a novel hyper-scanning approach, the role of social reinforcement will be examined by simultaneous monitoring of the pain-related brain activation as well as a microanalysis of daily pain-related social interactions in patients and significant others. The identified brain circuits will be mechanistically examined by employing transcranial magnetic stimulation and real time functional magnetic resonance imaging feedback, which also serves therapeutic functions.