Delineating the Brain Mechanisms Supporting Modulation of Pain by Meditation

描述（由申请人提供）：疼痛是一种涉及感觉、认知和情感机制的多维体验。这些因素之间的相互作用使得临床疼痛的治疗具有挑战性，并且通常是经济负担。正念冥想已被证明可以改善健康，幸福，同时具有成本效益。此外，正念冥想已被发现在实验和临床环境中显着改善疼痛症状。不幸的是，这些好处在很大程度上已经在那些广泛的冥想训练和实践中得到了证明。正念冥想的效用可能会被证明更有吸引力，如果它被发现在短暂的训练后减少疼痛。与冥想有关的疼痛缓解的大脑机制在很大程度上是未知的，需要进一步的调查。我们实验室最近的研究结果表明，经过四天（20米/天）的训练，冥想可以显著降低40%的疼痛强度和57%的疼痛不愉快评分。采用一种新兴的MRI技术（动脉自旋标记），我们发现冥想相关的疼痛缓解与多种大脑机制有关，这些机制与躯体感觉脑活动的减少和参与认知控制、情绪调节和执行处理的大脑区域的增加有关。然而，它仍然是未知的，如果冥想涉及大脑机制，是不同于其他疼痛调节过程，也涉及认知因素。间接证据表明，冥想相关的疼痛调节与前岛叶皮质的激活有关，而安慰剂相关的疼痛 调制与该结构的减少的激活有关。因此，这项研究计划将测试这样一个假设，即冥想引起的疼痛调制与安慰剂相关的疼痛调制过程中所涉及的大脑机制不同。该奖学金将为申请人提供全面的培训，研究人类大脑疼痛机制和多种发展机会，以促进过渡到独立研究者的职业生涯。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pain is a multidimensional experience that involves sensory, cognitive and affective mechanisms. The constellation of interactions between these factors makes the treatment of clinical pain challenging and often a financial burden. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to improve health, well being, and at the same time is cost-effective. Moreover, mindfulness meditation has been found to significantly improve pain symptoms in experimental and clinical settings. Unfortunately, these benefits have largely been demonstrated in those with extensive meditation training and practice. The utility of mindfulness meditation may prove more attractive if it is found to reduce pain after brief training. The brain mechanisms involved in meditation- related pain relief are largely unknown and require further investigation. Recent findings from our laboratory determined that meditation, after four days (20m/d) of training, dramatically reduced pain intensity by 40% and pain unpleasantness ratings by 57%. Employing an emerging MRI technique (arterial spin labeling), we found that meditation-related pain relief was associated with multiple brain mechanisms related to reductions in somatosensory brain activity and increases in brain regions involved in cognitive control, emotion regulation, and executive processing. However, it remains unknown if meditation engages brain mechanisms that are distinct from other pain modulatory processes that also involve cognitive factors. Indirect evidence suggests that meditation-related pain modulation is associated with activation of the anterior insular cortex, while placebo-related pain modulation is associated with reduced activation of this structure. Thus, the research proposed in this fellowship will test the hypothesis that meditation induced modulation of pain engages brain mechanisms that are distinct from those involved during placebo-related pain modulation. This fellowship will provide the applicant with comprehensive training in the investigation of human brain mechanisms of pain and multiple development opportunities that will facilitate transition to a career as an independent investigator.