Brain Imaging of Experimental Pain

我研究的长期目标是了解大脑是如何产生疼痛的，以及与之相关的行为。为了研究疼痛，我实验室的研究通常使用热或电刺激来诱导健康参与者的疼痛。我们寻求资金紧急更换两个热刺激器，并再购买一个热刺激器和两个电刺激器。自2016年我来到麦吉尔以来，我的实验室呈指数级增长，目前总共培养了24名研究生、本科生和博士后。我们还与蒙特利尔的&gt；7合作者共享设备。有限的热和电刺激器造成了一个瓶颈，现在严重损害了我的受训人员有效开展研究项目的能力。该实验室的研究旨在研究各种心理变量对疼痛的影响，如情绪、期望、注意力和动机。在接下来的五年研究周期中，我实验室的研究将专注于，但不限于，研究执行一项要求苛刻的认知任务对疼痛感知的减轻疼痛效果。每时每刻，我们都会受到来自环境或身体的大量感觉输入的轰炸，但我们的大脑在任何给定的时间都只能处理其中的一小部分。因此，主观感知的疼痛应该被认为是传入的伤害性信号与其他有价值的活动之间竞争的结果，以获取有限的认知资源。意识的一个突出模型是全球神经元工作区(GNW)。根据GNW模型，意识的内容由到达额顶“全球工作空间”的信息的性质决定。我们的一般假设是，知觉到的疼痛是疼痛和任务“神经信号”之间争夺GNW的结果。拟议的研究计划围绕3项研究，考察疼痛-认知相互作用的不同方面。研究一将探讨同时工作记忆任务的认知负荷和价值的止痛效果。研究2将研究认知疲劳如何降低执行同时工作记忆任务的动机和相关的止痛。最后，研究3将考察进行激情活动如何增强执行同时认知任务的止痛效果。拟议中的实验将更好地理解导致我们有意识体验疼痛的动态大脑过程，以及如何潜在地控制它。

The long-term objective of my research is to understand how the brain produces pain, and the behaviors associated with it. To study pain, studies in my lab generally induce pain in healthy participants using thermal or electrical stimulations. We seek funding to urgently replace two thermal stimulators and purchase one additional thermal stimulator and two additional electrical stimulators. My lab has grown exponentially since my arrival at McGill in 2016, and currently trains a total of 24 graduate, undergraduate and post-doctoral students. We also share equipment with > 7 collaborators in Montreal. Limited access to thermal and electrical stimulators creates a bottleneck that now severely impairs the capacity of my trainees to efficiently conduct their research projects. Research in the lab aims at studying the impact of various psychological variables on pain such as emotions, expectations, attention and motivation. For the next 5-year cycle of research, research in my lab will focus on, but not be restricted to, the study of the pain-reducing effects of performing a demanding cognitive task on pain perception. Every second, we are bombarded with a multitude of sensory inputs from the environment or from our body, but our brains can only process a fraction of that information at any given time. Subjectively perceived pain should therefore be conceived as the result of the competition between incoming nociceptive signals and other valued activities for access to limited cognitive resources. One prominent model of consciousness is the Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW). According to the GNW model, the content of consciousness is determined by the nature of the information that reaches a fronto-parietal "global workspace". Our general hypothesis is that perceived pain results from the competition between pain and task "neurosignatures" for access to the GNW. The proposed program of research centers around 3 studies examining different facets of pain-cognition interactions. Study 1 will investigate the analgesic effects of the cognitive load and value of a concurrent working memory task. Study 2 will examine how cognitive fatigue reduces the motivation to perform a concurrent working memory task and the associated analgesia. Finally, study 3 will examine how performing a passionate activity potentiates the analgesic effect of performing a concurrent cognitive task. The proposed experiments will provide a better understanding of the dynamic cerebral processes causing our conscious experience pain, and how to potentially control it.