Brain Rhythms of Pain

Abstract

Pain is an integrative phenomenon that results from dynamic interactions between sensory and contextual (i.e., cognitive, emotional, and motivational) processes. In the brain the experience of pain is associated with neuronal oscillations and synchrony at different frequencies. However, an overarching framework for the significance of oscillations for pain remains lacking. Recent concepts relate oscillations at different frequencies to the routing of information flow in the brain and the signaling of predictions and prediction errors. The application of these concepts to pain promises insights into how flexible routing of information flow coordinates diverse processes that merge into the experience of pain. Such insights might have implications for the understanding and treatment of chronic pain.

Keywords: brain; information flow; oscillations; pain; predictive coding.

Figure 1

Key Figure: Flexible Routing of Information Flow in the Processing of Pain Schematic representation of three brain areas in the processing of pain under three different conditions. (A) Pain is mainly driven by stimulus processing. A brain area associated with stimulus processing sends feedforward information to other brain areas implicated in pain processing. The sending of feedforward information is associated with gamma oscillations and gamma synchrony across brain areas. (B,C) Pain is mainly driven by contextual processes (e.g., attention, expectation, emotion). Brain areas associated with the respective contextual factor send feedback information to other brain areas. This is associated with alpha/beta oscillations and alpha/beta synchrony across brain areas.