Abstract
Pain is generally caused by peripheral events, and patients and medical professionals therefore tend to focus locally on those parts of the body where patients complain of pain. However, pain modulation occurs in patients who suffer pain not only due to localized factors but also due to various causes such as repeating memories of pain, environmental/social problems, and the mental/psychological state of the patient.
According to the International Association for the Study of Pain, pain is defined as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage,” and indeed, these types of incidents that are encountered clinically indicate that pain is a subjective experience of the brain. In recent years, functional neuroimaging techniques have frequently been applied to depict pain and its attendant sensory and emotional experiences as an image or to quantify these factors from the perspective that pain is perceived in the brain.
We conducted a review of the current state of functional neuroimaging in the brain and spinal cord based on recent research findings.
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Ushida, T., Shimo, K., Ikemoto, T. (2014). Evaluation of Pain with Functional Neuroimaging. In: Uchida, K., Nakamura, M., Ozawa, H., Katoh, S., Toyama, Y. (eds) Neuroprotection and Regeneration of the Spinal Cord. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54502-6_32
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54502-6_32
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