Effect of acute pain on the plastic potential of the sensorimotor cortex

急性疼痛对感觉运动皮层可塑性潜力的影响

• 批准号: 355896-2012
• 负责人: Mercier, Catherine
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: Université Laval
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=572688
• 关键词: Effect; acute; pain; plastic; potential

Pain is an unpleasant sensation, but is an essential part of our body defense system and plays a vital role in healthy survival. Pain act as a strong motivator to withdraw from potentially damaging situations and to avoid those situation in the future, and is therefore a very potent stimulus to induce learning at the behavioral level. At the nervous system level, it has been suggested that the changes occurring in the neurons after intense painful stimulation mirrors the changes underlying learning and memory. Because of that, it has been suggested that the ability of our neurons modify their connections (a phenomenon called plasticity) might be altered when we are in pain. This plasticity is a key feature of the nervous system that allows learning of new abilities, adaptation to different environments and, to some extent, recovery following injury. The main objective of my research program is to investigate whether and how acute pain alters the plastic potential of the regions of our brain that are involved in the control of our movements and in the perception of our own body. To answer that question, we will induce experimental temporary pain in healthy volunteers and study how their brain reacts to different situations compared to when they are not in pain. Those situations include: 1- sustaining an experimental "injury" to a limb (induced by ischemia, a safe and reversible way of simulating a nerve lesion); 2- training in a new motor task; 3- receiving non invasive brain stimulation (a technique inducing temporary changes in brain activity that is used in the treatment of some neurological problem); 4- being exposed to a procedure that cause the illusion of a change in the body (as we know that people with chronic pain often have altered perception of their own body, just think of how your finger feel larger than they are when you just hit them with an hammer). As learning at the motor and sensory levels is accompanied by pain in a variety of contexts, from the relearning of very simple everyday gestures in patients undergoing rehabilitation to the acquisition of highly skilled movement in elite athletes, the potential effect of pain on the induction of plasticity and learning is an important question that has received very limited scientific attention.

疼痛是一种不愉快的感觉，但它是我们身体防御系统的重要组成部分，在健康生存中起着至关重要的作用。疼痛是一种强烈的激励，让人从潜在的破坏性情境中退出，并避免未来出现这种情境，因此是一种非常有力的刺激，可以在行为层面上诱导学习。在神经系统的层面上，已经有人提出，剧烈疼痛刺激后神经元发生的变化反映了学习和记忆基础的变化。正因为如此，有人提出，当我们处于痛苦中时，我们的神经元改变其连接的能力（一种称为可塑性的现象）可能会发生变化。这种可塑性是神经系统的一个关键特征，它允许学习新的能力，适应不同的环境，并在某种程度上，在受伤后恢复。我的研究项目的主要目的是调查急性疼痛是否以及如何改变我们大脑中参与控制我们的运动和感知我们自己身体的区域的可塑性潜力。为了回答这个问题，我们将在健康的志愿者身上诱导实验性的暂时疼痛，并研究他们的大脑在不同情况下的反应，与他们没有疼痛时的反应相比。这些情况包括：1-肢体遭受实验性“损伤”（由缺血引起，这是一种安全且可逆的模拟神经损伤的方式）；2-训练新的运动任务；3-接受非侵入性脑刺激（一种引起脑活动暂时变化的技术，用于治疗某些神经问题）；4-接受手术会产生身体变化的错觉（我们知道患有慢性疼痛的人经常会改变对自己身体的感知，想想当你用锤子敲击手指时，你的手指感觉比它们大多少）。由于运动和感觉水平的学习在各种情况下都伴随着疼痛，从康复患者非常简单的日常手势的再学习到精英运动员高技能运动的习得，疼痛对可塑性和学习诱导的潜在影响是一个重要的问题，但科学关注非常有限。