Altered Endogenous Pain-Inhibitory Function in Older Adults With Chronic Pain Is Associated With Disruptions in Functional Connectivity During Resting State.

Increasing research points to a decline in the ability to internally regulate pain as a contributing factor to the increased pain susceptibility in aging. This study investigated the connection between pain regulation and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in older adults with chronic pain. We compared functional magnetic resonance imaging rsFC of 30 older adults with chronic pain (69.

Age-related differences in functional connectivity associated with pain modulation.

Growing evidence suggests that aging is associated with impaired endogenous pain modulation, and that this likely underlies the increased transition from acute to chronic pain in older individuals. Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) offers a valuable tool to examine the neural mechanisms behind these age-related changes in pain modulation. RsFC studies generally observe decreased within-network connectivity due to aging, but its relevance for pain modulation remains unknown.

Pain and related suffering reduce attention toward others.

Background: It has been proposed that the expression of pain-related suffering may lead to an enhanced focus on oneself and reduced attention toward the external world. This study aimed at investigating whether experimentally induced painrelated suffering may lead persons to withdraw into themselves, causing a reduced focus on external stimuli as reflected by impaired performance in a facial recognition task and heightened perception of internal stimuli measured by interoceptive awareness.

Methods: Thirty-two participants had to recognize different emotional facial expressions (neutral, sad, angry, happy), or neutral geometrical figures under conditions of no pain, low, and high prolonged pain intensities.

An Educational and Exercise Mobile Phone-Based Intervention to Elicit Electrophysiological Changes and to Improve Psychological Functioning in Adults With Nonspecific Chronic Low Back Pain (BackFit App): Nonrandomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Concomitant psychological and cognitive impairments modulate nociceptive processing and contribute to chronic low back pain (CLBP) maintenance, poorly correlated with radiological findings. Clinical practice guidelines recommend self-management and multidisciplinary educational and exercise-based interventions. However, these recommendations are based on self-reported measurements, which lack evidence of related electrophysiological changes.

[Physical exercise impact on variables related to emotional and functional well-being in older adults].

Background And Aim: The benefits of the physical exercise in aging, and specially in frailty, have been associated with reduced risk of mortality, chronic disease, and cognitive and functional impairments. Multi-component training, which combines strength, endurance, balance, and gait training, represents the most beneficial kind of physical exercise in older adults.

Methods: Given the effectiveness of the multi-component training, a physical exercise program «Actívate» (based on the methodology Vivifrail), with the focus on «active aging», was conducted in the present study.

Intact pain modulation through manipulation of controllability and expectations in aging.

Background: Pain expectation and controllability can modulate pain processing. However, little is known about age-related effects on these cognitive factors involved in pain control. This study assessed age-related brain changes associated with pain expectation and controllability.

Acute Effects of a Brief Physical Exercise Intervention on Somatosensory Perception, Lumbar Strength, and Flexibility in Patients with Nonspecific Chronic Low-Back Pain.

Background: Evidence-based clinical guidelines consider physical exercise one of the best nonpharmacological interventions for low-back pain (LBP), but it is necessary to clarify the exercise-induced hypoalgesia effect of different modalities of exercise in chronic pain populations.

Purpose: This study focused on exploring acute changes in tactile and pressure-pain perception and lumbar strength and flexibility in patients with nonspecific chronic LBP (NSCLBP) after performing one of three 20-minute physical exercise modalities.

Methods: A total of 81 patients with NSCLBP were pseudorandomly distributed into three groups of 20-minute physical exercise - 1) aerobic (n=21, mean age 42±9.

Alterations in Neural Responses and Pain Perception in Older Adults During Distraction.

Objective: Although it is acknowledged that pain may be modulated by cognitive factors, little is known about the effect of aging on these control processes. The present study investigated electroencephalographical correlates of pain processing and its cognitive modulation in healthy older individuals.

Methods: For this purpose, the impact of distraction on pain was evaluated in 21 young (9 men; 20.

Psychological, cognitive factors and contextual influences in pain and pain-related suffering as revealed by a combined qualitative and quantitative assessment approach.

Previous psychophysiological research suggests that pain measurement needs to go beyond the assessment of Pain Intensity and Unpleasantness by adding the evaluation of Pain-Related Suffering. Based on this three-dimensional approach, we attempted to elucidate who is more likely to suffer by identifying reasons that may lead individuals to report Pain and Pain-Related Suffering more than others. A sample of 24 healthy participants (age range 18-33) underwent four different sessions involving the evaluation of experimentally induced phasic and tonic pain.

Controllability and hippocampal activation during pain expectation in fibromyalgia syndrome.

To examine the role of perceived control in pain perception, fibromyalgia patients and healthy controls participated in a reaction time experiment under different conditions of pain controllability. No significant differences between groups were found in pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings. However, during the expectation of uncontrollable pain, patients compared to controls showed higher hippocampal activation.