Localization of pain-related brain activation: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging data.

A meta-analysis of 140 neuroimaging studies was performed using the activation-likelihood-estimate (ALE) method to explore the location and extent of activation in the brain in response to noxious stimuli in healthy volunteers. The first analysis involved the creation of a likelihood map illustrating brain activation common across studies using noxious stimuli. The left thalamus, right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), bilateral anterior insulae, and left dorsal posterior insula had the highest likelihood of being activated.

Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and tactile memory disambiguation in the human brain.

Tactile sensory information is first channeled from the primary somatosensory cortex on the postcentral gyrus to the parietal opercular region (i.e., the secondary somatosensory cortex) and the rostral inferior parietal lobule and, from there, to the prefrontal cortex, with which bidirectional connections exist.

Memory traces of pain in human cortex.

Distinct brain regions process sensory discriminative and affective components of pain; however, the role of these areas in pain memory is unknown. This event-related study investigated the short-term memory for sensory features of cutaneous heat pain using a delayed-discrimination paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging. During memory trials, subjects discriminated the location and intensity of two painful stimuli presented sequentially to the right hand.

Attenuation of sensory and affective responses to heat pain: evidence for contralateral mechanisms.

Attenuation of responses to repeated sensory events has been thoroughly studied in many modalities; however, attenuation of pain perception has not yet benefitted from such extensive investigation. Described here are two psychophysical studies that examined the effects of repeated exposure to thermal stimuli, assessing potential attenuation of the perception of pain and its possible spatial specificity. Twenty-two subjects were presented thermal stimuli to the volar surface of the right and left forearms.

Visceral and cutaneous pain representation in parasylvian cortex.

The ability to localize both touch and pain has been attributed mainly to the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), based on its fine somatotopic mapping of tactile inputs. Recently, S1 has also been implicated in the differentiation of noxious stimulation, such as distinguishing between pain arising from viscera and skin. Recent MEG and fMRI studies show that there is at least a rudimentary tactile topographic representation in the supra-sylvian cortex [encompassing secondary somatosensory area (S2)], suggesting that this area may contribute to touch localization.

Is there a role for the parietal lobes in the perception of pain?

Converging lines of evidence confirm a role for the anterior parietal cortex in pain processing and extend the traditional view of SI to include discriminative aspects of somatic stimulation that is potentially tissue-damaging (e.g., painful).