Quantification of attention on pathological pain by using visual cues and functional brain imaging to reveal neural substrates of the attention

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Perception of pain is depending on physical quantity of the somatosensory stimulation, and it is modulated by cognitive function of the brain. In the present study, we focused on the attention which is one of cognitive functions most affecting pain perception. We have revealed the intimate relationship between pathological pain and visual perception, and thereby we aimed to develop a novel method to quantify the attention on pathological pain by using visual cues and also to reveal the neural substrates of the attentional mechanism which is related with pathological pain by using the near-infrared spectroscopy. We developed and used the experiment paradigm called as “the illusory line motion”. Patients with chronic pain in one extremity were participated in this study. By this paradigm, we could revealed that the attention deviates toward the affected side and the attention is quantified by amount of the deviation. Further, we treated chronic pain patients with the electrical nee stimulation. By applying the electrical stimulation on the affected or unaffected limb, the attentional bias was enhanced or neutralized respectively. Such effect depended on not physical quantity of the electrical stimulation but perceptional quantity of theelectrical paresthesia. Therefore, we can conclude that pathological pain and external somatosensory stimuli show same property for the attention mechanism. Moreover, this mechanism was associated with the prefrontal brain activity.