Green Light Exposure Reduces Primary Hyperalgesia and Proinflammatory Cytokines in a Rodent Model of Knee Osteoarthritis: Shedding Light on Sex Differences.

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) often causes chronic pain that disproportionately affects females. Proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 are key effectors of OA pathological changes. Green light shows potential as an alternative intervention for various pain conditions.

Pathological claustrum activity drives aberrant cognitive network processing in human chronic pain.

Aberrant cognitive network activity and cognitive deficits are established features of chronic pain. However, the nature of cognitive network alterations associated with chronic pain and their underlying mechanisms require elucidation. Here, we report that the claustrum, a subcortical nucleus implicated in cognitive network modulation, is activated by acute painful stimulation and pain-predictive cues in healthy participants.

Meditation Practice, Mindfulness, and Pain-Related Outcomes in Mindfulness-Based Treatment for Episodic Migraine.

Objectives: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have emerged as promising prophylactic episodic migraine treatments. The present study investigated biopsychosocial predictors and outcomes associated with formal, daily-life meditation practice in migraine patients undergoing MBI, and whether augmented mindfulness mechanistically underlies change.

Methods: Secondary analyses of clinical trial data comparing a 12-week enhanced mindfulness-based stress reduction course (MBSR + ; = 50) to stress management for headache (SMH; = 48) were conducted.

Secondary analysis: heat and self-report pain sensitivity associate with biological sex and racialized sociocultural group but may not be mediated by anxiety or pain catastrophizing.

Introduction: Previous studies have demonstrated associations between sex and racialized group on pain sensitivity and tolerance. We analyzed the association of sex and racialized group on heat pain sensitivity, sensibility to painful suprathreshold mechanical pain (STMP), and pain sensitivity questionnaire (PSQ). We hypothesized that anxiety and pain catastrophizing reported by racialized minority groups and women would mediate enhanced pain sensitivity.

Effects of Savoring Meditation on Positive Emotions and Pain-Related Brain Function: A Mechanistic Randomized Controlled Trial in People With Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Positive emotions are a promising target for intervention in chronic pain, but mixed findings across trials to date suggest that existing interventions may not be optimized to efficiently engage the target. The aim of the current pilot mechanistic randomized controlled trial was to test the effects of a positive emotion-enhancing intervention called Savoring Meditation on pain-related neural and behavioral targets in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Participants included 44 patients with a physician-confirmed diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (n = 29 included in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analyses), who were randomized to either Savoring Meditation or a Slow Breathing control.

Pathological claustrum activity drives aberrant cognitive network processing in human chronic pain.

Aberrant cognitive network activity and cognitive deficits are established features of chronic pain. However, the nature of cognitive network alterations associated with chronic pain and their underlying mechanisms require elucidation. Here, we report that the claustrum, a subcortical nucleus implicated in cognitive network modulation, is activated by acute painful stimulation and pain-predictive cues in healthy participants.

Focused Ultrasound Central Lateral Thalamotomy for the Treatment of Refractory Neuropathic Pain: Phase I Trial.

Background And Objectives: Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) central lateral thalamotomy (CLT) has not yet been validated for treating refractory neuropathic pain (NP). Our aim was to assess the safety and potential efficacy of MRgFUS CLT for refractory NP.

Methods: In this prospective, nonrandomized, single-arm, investigator-initiated phase I trial, patients with NP for more than 6 months related to phantom limb pain, spinal cord injury, or radiculopathy/radicular injury and who had undergone at least one previous failed intervention were eligible.

Effects of Savoring Meditation on Positive Emotions and Pain-Related Brain Function: A Mechanistic Randomized Controlled Trial in People With Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Positive emotions are a promising target for intervention in chronic pain, but mixed findings across trials to date suggest that existing interventions may not be optimized to efficiently engage the target. The aim of the current mechanistic randomized controlled trial was to test the effects of a single skill positive emotion-enhancing intervention called Savoring Meditation on pain-related neural and behavioral targets in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Participants included 44 patients with a physician-confirmed diagnosis of RA (n=29 included in fMRI analyses), who were randomized to either Savoring Meditation or a Slow Breathing control.

The social context of burning mouth syndrome: an exploratory pilot study of stigma, discrimination, and pain.

Background: The social context of burning mouth syndrome (BMS) has received little attention in the scientific literature. However, social psychological theory and insights from those with lived experiences suggest that people living with BMS experience compounding effects of stigma related to their pain, diagnosis (or lack thereof), and intersectional identities.

Objective: Our aim is to provide initial evidence and to motivate new directions for research on BMS.

Three Dimensions of Association Link Migraine Symptoms and Functional Connectivity.

Migraine is a heterogeneous disorder with variable symptoms and responsiveness to therapy. Because of previous analytic shortcomings, variance in migraine symptoms has been inconsistently related to brain function. In the current analysis, we used data from two sites ( = 143, male and female humans), and performed canonical correlation analysis, relating resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) with a broad range of migraine symptoms, ranging from headache characteristics to sleep abnormalities.

Tonic pain alters functional connectivity of the descending pain modulatory network involving amygdala, periaqueductal gray, parabrachial nucleus and anterior cingulate cortex.

Introduction: Resting state functional connectivity (FC) is widely used to assess functional brain alterations in patients with chronic pain. However, reports of FC accompanying tonic pain in pain-free persons are rare. A network we term the Descending Pain Modulatory Network (DPMN) is implicated in healthy and pathologic pain modulation.

Brain responses to painful electrical stimuli and cognitive tasks interact in the precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, and inferior parietal cortex and do not vary across the menstrual cycle.

Introduction: Bidirectional effects between cognition and pain have been extensively reported. Although brain regions involved in cognitive and pain processing seem to partly overlap, it is unknown what specific brain regions are involved in the interaction between pain and cognition. Furthermore, the role of gonadal hormones on these interacting effects has not been examined.

Migraine disability, pain catastrophizing, and headache severity are associated with evoked pain and targeted by mind-body therapy.

Meta-analysis suggests that migraine patients are no more sensitive to experimentally evoked pain than healthy control subjects. At the same time, studies have linked some migraine symptoms to quantitative sensory testing (QST) profiles. Unfortunately, previous studies associating migraine symptoms and QST have important methodological shortcomings, stemming from small sample sizes, and frequent use of univariate statistics for multivariate research questions.

Differences in gray matter volume in episodic migraine patients with and without prior diagnosis or clinical care: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Migraine sufferers face difficulties getting appropriate care and treatment. Migraine is associated with reduced gray matter volume (GMV) in several brain regions, which could be related to various clinical characteristics of the disorder.

Objectives: To examine differences in GMV in migraine patients with and without prior clinical care for migraine and examine differences in migraine clinical variables, psychosocial symptoms and their relationship with GMV.

Time of Day Influences Psychophysical Measures in Women With Burning Mouth Syndrome.

Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a chronic orofacial pain condition that mainly affects postmenopausal women. BMS type I patients report little to no spontaneous pain in the morning and increases in pain through the day, peaking in the afternoon. Quantitative sensory testing (QST) findings from BMS type 1 patients are inconsistent as they fail to capture this temporal variation.

During capsaicin-induced central sensitization, brush allodynia is associated with baseline warmth sensitivity, whereas mechanical hyperalgesia is associated with painful mechanical sensibility, anxiety and somatization.

Background: Mechanical hyperalgesia and allodynia incidence varies considerably amongst neuropathic pain patients. This study explored whether sensory or psychological factors associate with mechanical hyperalgesia and brush allodynia in a human experimental model.

Methods: Sixty-six healthy volunteers (29 male) completed psychological questionnaires and participated in two quantitative sensory testing (QST) sessions.

Menstrual Cycle Variations in Gray Matter Volume, White Matter Volume and Functional Connectivity: Critical Impact on Parietal Lobe.

The role of gonadal hormones in neural plasticity remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the effects of naturally fluctuating hormone levels over the menstrual cycle in healthy females. Gray matter, functional connectivity (FC) and white matter changes over the cycle were assessed by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), resting state fMRI, and structural MRIs, respectively, and associated with serum gonadal hormone levels.

Enhanced mindfulness-based stress reduction in episodic migraine: a randomized clinical trial with magnetic resonance imaging outcomes.

We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of an enhanced mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR+) vs stress management for headache (SMH). We performed a randomized, assessor-blind, clinical trial of 98 adults with episodic migraine recruited at a single academic center comparing MBSR+ (n = 50) with SMH (n = 48). MBSR+ and SMH were delivered weekly by group for 8 weeks, then biweekly for another 8 weeks.

Sensorimotor Peak Alpha Frequency Is a Reliable Biomarker of Prolonged Pain Sensitivity.

Previous research has observed that the speed of alpha band oscillations (8-12 Hz range) recorded during resting electroencephalography is slowed in chronic pain patients. While this slowing may reflect pathological changes that occur during the chronification of pain, an alternative explanation is that healthy individuals with slower alpha oscillations are more sensitive to prolonged pain, and by extension, more susceptible to developing chronic pain. To test this hypothesis, we examined the relationship between the pain-free, resting alpha oscillation speed of healthy individuals and their sensitivity to two models of prolonged pain, Phasic Heat Pain and Capsaicin Heat Pain, at two visits separated by 8 weeks on average (n = 61 Visit 1, n = 46 Visit 2).

Non-invasive Motor Cortex Neuromodulation Reduces Secondary Hyperalgesia and Enhances Activation of the Descending Pain Modulatory Network.

Central sensitization is a driving mechanism in many chronic pain patients, and manifests as hyperalgesia and allodynia beyond any apparent injury. Recent studies have demonstrated analgesic effects of motor cortex (M1) stimulation in several chronic pain disorders, yet its neural mechanisms remain uncertain. We evaluated whether anodal M1 transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) would mitigate central sensitization as measured by indices of secondary hyperalgesia.

Cerebral peak alpha frequency predicts individual differences in pain sensitivity.

The identification of neurobiological markers that predict individual predisposition to pain are not only important for development of effective pain treatments, but would also yield a more complete understanding of how pain is implemented in the brain. In the current study using electroencephalography (EEG), we investigated the relationship between the peak frequency of alpha activity over sensorimotor cortex and pain intensity during capsaicin-heat pain (C-HP), a prolonged pain model known to induce spinal central sensitization in primates. We found that peak alpha frequency (PAF) recorded during a pain-free period preceding the induction of prolonged pain correlated with subsequent pain intensity reports: slower peak frequency at pain-free state was associated with higher pain during the prolonged pain condition.

High Frequency Migraine Is Associated with Lower Acute Pain Sensitivity and Abnormal Insula Activity Related to Migraine Pain Intensity, Attack Frequency, and Pain Catastrophizing.

Migraine is a pain disorder associated with abnormal brain structure and function, yet the effect of migraine on acute pain processing remains unclear. It also remains unclear whether altered pain-related brain responses and related structural changes are associated with clinical migraine characteristics. Using fMRI and three levels of thermal stimuli (non-painful, mildly painful, and moderately painful), we compared whole-brain activity between 14 migraine patients and 14 matched controls.

Comparison of Dental Students' Self-Directed, Faculty, and Software-Based Assessments of Dental Anatomy Wax-Ups: A Retrospective Study.

Little is known about self-directed and self-reflective assessment in preclinical dental curricula. The aim of this study was to evaluate a visual dental anatomy teaching tool to train dental students to self-assess their dental anatomy wax carving practical examinations. The students self-assessed two waxing practical examinations (tooth #8 and tooth #19) using high-quality digital images in an assessment tool incorporated into a digital testing program.

Altered Brain Structure and Function Correlate with Disease Severity and Pain Catastrophizing in Migraine Patients.

To investigate the neuroanatomical and functional brain changes in migraine patients relative to healthy controls, we used a combined analytical approach including voxel- and surface-based morphometry along with resting-state functional connectivity to determine whether areas showing structural alterations in patients also showed abnormal functional connectivity. Additionally, we wanted to assess whether these structural and functional changes were associated with group differences in pain catastrophizing and migraine-related disease variables in patients. We acquired T1-weighted anatomical and functional magnetic resonance imaging scans during rest in human subjects with a diagnosis of migraine and healthy controls.