慢性疼痛と皮質活動

抄録

Relationship between chronic pain and cortical activity was shortly reviewed. Change in cortical neural activity in patients with chronic pain has been reported in many previous papers. Those previous reports showed characteristics finding of basic rhythm, such as increment of theta activity, depending on the degree of pain and the pathological condition in patients with peripheral and central chronic pain syndrome. Recent studies, including our studies, suggested quantitative analysis of cortical neural activity, such as current density, frequency distribution, and connectivity between pain–related cortical areas, could evaluate subjective chronic pain. Connectivity analysis also suggested chronic pain might induce modulation of large scale network including default mode network, which resulted in modification of sensory and motor cognition and psychological responses in daily life of patients.