Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the human spinal cord and brainstem with application to pain states

人类脊髓和脑干的功能性磁共振成像及其在疼痛状态中的应用

• 批准号: G0700238/2
• 负责人: Jonathan Brooks
• 金额: $ 34.78万
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2011 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=G0700238%2F2
• 关键词: Functional; magnetic; resonance; imaging; human

One in five people will experience chronic pain during their lives. Changes in the way the body processes pain signals are thought to underlie how, after injury, pain can become chronic. When you hurt yourself, pain signals are carried from the damaged tissue to the brain. On their way to the brain, they pass up the spinal cord and through the brainstem. However, when trying to find out what goes wrong in chronic pain, current imaging methods only allow researchers to look within the brain and brainstem. We would like to develop new methods that would allow us to look within the spinal cord as well. This is important for two reasons: (1) we know from animal experiments that the brainstem and spinal cord work together to increase or decrease the size of pain signals, and (2) abnormal changes in the function of the brainstem and spinal cord can make pain become chronic. In this project we will see how pain signals are processed in the spinal cord and brainstem in humans, and by doing so, get a better understanding of how pain is controlled, and hopefully learn why some people develop chronic pain after injury.

五分之一的人在一生中会经历慢性疼痛。身体处理疼痛信号的方式的变化被认为是受伤后疼痛如何成为慢性疼痛的基础。当你受伤时，疼痛信号会从受损组织传递到大脑。在到达大脑的过程中，它们通过脊髓和脑干。然而，当试图找出慢性疼痛的问题时，目前的成像方法只允许研究人员查看大脑和脑干内部。我们想开发新的方法，让我们也能看到脊髓内部。这很重要，原因有两个：（1）我们从动物实验中知道，脑干和脊髓共同作用，增加或减少疼痛信号的大小，（2）脑干和脊髓功能的异常变化可能会使疼痛变成慢性。在这个项目中，我们将看到疼痛信号是如何在人类的脊髓和脑干中被处理的，通过这样做，我们将更好地了解疼痛是如何被控制的，并希望了解为什么有些人在受伤后会出现慢性疼痛。