Abstract
Abstract. This review focuses on plasticity and reorganization associated with pain. It is well established that noxious stimulation activates a large network of neural structures in the human brain, which is often denominated as the neuromatrix of pain. Repeated stimulation is able to induce plasticity in nearly all structures of this neuromatrix. While the plasticity to short-term stimulation is usually transient, long-term stimulation might induce persistent changes within the neuromatrix network and reorganize its functions and structures. Interestingly, a large longitudinal study on patients with subacute back pain found predictors for the persistence of pain versus remission in mesolimbic structures not usually included in the neuromatrix of pain. From these results, new concepts of nociception, pain, and transition from acute to chronic pain emerged. Overall, this review outlines a number of plastic changes in response to pain. However, the role of plasticity for chronic pain has still to be established.
References
2009). Towards a theory of chronic pain. Progress in Neurobiology, 87, 81–97.
(2005). Human brain mechanisms of pain perception and regulation in health and disease. European Journal of Pain, 9, 463–484.
(2004). Chronic back pain is associated with decreased prefrontal and thalamic gray matter density. Journal of Neuroscience, 24, 10410–10415.
(2015). Nociception, pain, negative moods, and behavior selection. Neuron, 87, 474–491. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.06.005
(2012). Corticostriatal functional connectivity predicts transition to chronic back pain. Nature Neuroscience, 15, 1117–1119.
(1982). Theory for the development of neuron selectivity: Orientation specificity and binocular interaction in visual cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 2, 32–48.
(1997). Effects of regional anesthesia on phantom limb pain are mirrored in changes in cortical reorganization. Journal of Neuroscience, 17, 5503–5508.
(2010). Altered brain structure in irritable bowel syndrome: Potential contributions of pre-existing and disease-driven factors. Gastroenterology, 138, 1783–1789. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2009.12.043
(1973). Long-lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate area of the anaesthetized rabbit following stimulation of the perforant path. Journal of Physiology, 232, 331–356.
(2014). Cortical reorganization after macroreplantation at the upper extremity: A magnetoencephalographic study. Brain, 137, 757–769. doi: 10.1093/brain/awt366
(2014). A computational model unifies apparently contradictory findings concerning phantom pain. Scientific Reports, 4, 5298. doi: 10.1038/srep05298
(2013). Cognitive and emotional control of pain and its disruption in chronic pain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14, 502–511.
(2014). Gray matter alterations in chronic pain: A network-oriented meta-analytic approach. NeuroImage Clinical, 4, 676–686. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2014.04.007
(2015). Partial recovery of abnormal insula and dorsolateral prefrontal connectivity to cognitive networks in chronic low back pain after treatment. Human Brain Mapping, 36, 2075–2092. doi: 10.1002/hbm.22757
(2008). Pain and stress in a systems perspective: Reciprocal neural, endocrine, and immune interactions. Journal of Pain, 9, 122–145.
(2010). Sodium channels in normal and pathological pain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 33, 325–347.
(2010). The neurobiology of chronic pain states. Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, 12, 5–8.
(2012). Sensory feedback prosthesis reduces phantom limb pain: Proof of a principle. Neuroscience Letters, 507, 97–100. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2011.10.068
(2004). Changes in grey matter induced by training: Newly honed juggling skills show up as a transient feature on a brain-imaging scan. Nature, 427, 311–312.
(2006). Decrease of thalamic gray matter following limb amputation. NeuroImage, 31, 951–957.
(1994). Extensive reorganization of the somatosensory cortex in adult humans after nervous system injury. Neuroreport, 5, 2593–2597.
(2012). A dynamic network perspective of chronic pain. Neuroscience Letters, 520, 197–203. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2012.05.001
(1997). Extensive reorganization of primary somatosensory cortex in chronic back pain patients. Neuroscience Letters, 224, 5–8.
(2001). Effect of sensory discrimination training on cortical reorganisation and phantom limb pain. Lancet, 357, 1763–1764.
(2013). The neural basis of phantom limb pain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17, 307–308. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2013.04.007
(1995). Phantom-limb pain as a perceptual correlate of cortical reorganization following arm amputation. Nature, 375, 482–484.
(2006). Phantom limb pain: A case of maladaptive CNS plasticity? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7, 873–881.
(2003). Brain structures differ between musicians and non-musicians. Journal of Neuroscience, 23, 9240–9245.
(2008). The brain in chronic CRPS pain: Abnormal gray-white matter interactions in emotional and autonomic regions. Neuron, 60, 570–581.
(2006). Anatomical alterations of the visual motion processing network in migraine with and without aura. PLoS Medicine, 3, e402, 1915–1921. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030402
(2010). Thalamic atrophy associated with painful osteoarthritis of the hip is reversible after athroplasty: A longitudinal voxel-based-morphometric study. Arthritis and Rheumatology, 62, 2930–2940. doi: 10.1002/art.27585
(2012). Multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI: The early beginnings. NeuroImage, 62, 852–855. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.03.016
(2011). Central nervous system reorganization in a variety of chronic pain states: A review. PM&R, 3, 1116–1125. doi: 10.1016/j.pmrj.2011.05.018
(2010). From the neuromatrix of the pain matrix (and back). Experimental Brain Research, 205, 1–12.
(2016). Plasticity of pain revisited in 2015. The Lancet Neurology, 15, 19–21. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(15)00343-9
(2015). Neuropathic pain and functional reorganization in the primary sensorimotor cortex after spinal cord injury. The Journal of Pain, 16, 1256–1267. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2015.08.008
(2014). Large-scale reorganization of the somatosensory cortex following spinal cord injuries is due to brainstem plasticity. Nature Communication, 5, 3602. doi: 10.1038/ncomms4602
(1996). Reorganizational and perceptional changes after amputation. Brain, 119, 1213–1219.
(2016). The cortical signature of central poststroke pain: Gray matter decreases in somatosensory, insular, and prefrontal cortices. Cerebral Cortex, 26, 80–88. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhu177
(2007). Accelerated brain gray matter loss in fibromyalgia patients: Premature aging of the brain? Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 4004–4007.
(2013). Primary sensory cortices contain distinguishable spatial patterns of activity for each sense. Nature Communications, 4, 1979. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2979
(2004). Exercise-induced changes of motor excitability with and without sensory block. Brain Research, 1003, 68–76.
(2001). Phantom movements and pain: An MRI study in upper limb amputees. Brain, 124, 2268–2277.
(2006). Combination of TMS and fMRI reveals a specific pattern of reorganization in M1 in patients after complete spinal cord injury. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 24, 97–107.
(2008). White and gray matter abnormalities in the brain of patients with fibromyalgia: A diffusion-tensor and volumetric imaging study. Arthritis and Rheumatology, 58, 3960–3969.
(2014). Functional deficits in carpal tunnel syndrome reflect reorganization of primary somatosensory cortex. Brain, 137, 1741–1752. doi: 10.1093/brain/awu096
(2003). Patterns of cortical reorganization in complex regional pain syndrome. Neurology, 61, 1707–1715.
(2004). Cortical reorganization during recovery from complex regional pain syndrome. Neurology, 63, 693–701.
(2015). Network-level reorganisation of functional connectivity following arm amputation. NeuroImage, 114, 217–225. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.02.067
(2013). Phantom pain is associated with preserved structure and function in the former hand area. Nature Communications, 4, 1570–1577. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2571
(2015). Reassessing cortical reorganization in the primary somatosensory cortex following arm amputation. Brain, 138, 2140–2146.
(2013). Brain white matter structural properties predict transition to chronic pain. Pain, 154, 2160–2168.
(2008). Chronic pain may change the structure of the brain. Pain, 137, 7–15.
(2011). Structural brain imaging: A window into chronic pain. The Neuroscientist, 17, 209–220.
(1999). Correlation between structural and functional changes in brain in an idiopathic headache syndrome. Nature Medicine, 5, 836–838.
(1965). Pain mechanisms: A new theory. A gate control system modulates sensory input from the skin before it evokes pain perception and response. Science, 150, 971–979.
(1984). Somatosensory cortical map changes following digit amputation in adult monkeys. The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 224, 591–605.
(1998). Brain electrical correlates of pain processing. Zeitschrift für Rheumatologie, 57, 14–18.
(2004). Graded motor imagery is effective for long-standing complex regional pain syndrome: A randomised controlled trial. Pain, 108, 192–198.
(2006). Graded motor imagery for pathologic pain: A randomized controlled trial. Neurology, 67, 2129–2134. doi: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000249112.56935.32
(2012). Targeting cortical representations in the treatment of chronic pain: A review. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 26, 646–652. doi: 10.1177/1545968311433209
(2011). A multisensory investigation of the functional significance of the “pain matrix”. NeuroImage, 54, 2237–2249.
(2014). Reorganization of hippocampal functional connectivity with transition to chronic back pain. Journal of Neurophysiology, 111, 1065–1076. doi: 10.1152/jn.00611.2013
(2012). Abnormalities in hippocampal functioning with persistent pain. The Journal of Neuroscience, 32, 5747–5756. doi: 10.1523/jneurosci.0587-12.2012
(2006). Beyond mind-reading: Multi-voxel pattern analysis of fMRI data. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 424–430. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2006.07.005
(2009). Gray matter changes related to chronic posttraumatic headache. Neurology, 73, 978–983. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181b8791a
(2013). Gray matter volume reduction reflects chronic pain in trigeminal neuralgia. NeuroImage, 74, 352–358. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.02.029
(2015). Pain anticipation: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of brain imaging studies. Human Brain Mapping, 36, 1648–1661. doi: 10.1002/hbm.22727
(2000). Functional imaging of brain responses to pain. A review and meta-analysis. Neurophysiologie Clinique – Clinical Neurophysiology, 30, 263–288.
(2011). Brachial plexus block in phantom limb pain: A case report. Pain Medicine, 12, 1649–1654. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2011.01247.x
(2013). Gray matter changes following limb amputation with high and low intensities of phantom limb pain. Cerebral Cortex, 23, 1038–1048. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhs063
(2012). Enhanced sensitivity to punctate painful stimuli in female patients with chronic low back pain. BMC Neurology, 12, 98. doi: 10.1186/1471-2377-12-98
(2013). Somatosensory abnormalities for painful and innocuous stimuli at the back and at a site distinct from the region of pain in chronic back pain patients. Plos One, 8, e58885. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058885
(1997). Pain affect encoded in human anterior cingulate but not somatosensory cortex. Science, 277, 968–971.
(2015). Frontostriatal gating of tinnitus and chronic pain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19, 567–578. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2015.08.002
(2009). Brain gray matter decrease in chronic pain is the consequence and not the cause of pain. Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 13746–13750. doi: 10.1523/jneurosci.3687-09.2009
(2006). Affective components and intensity of pain correlate with structural differences in gray matter in chronic back pain patients. Pain, 125, 89–97.
(2010). Regional gray matter density changes in brains of patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology, 139, 48–57. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2010.03.049
(2011). Effective treatment of chronic low back pain in humans reverses abnormal brain anatomy and function. Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 7540–7550.
(2012). Effects of temporary functional deafferentation on the brain, sensation, and behavior of stroke patients. The Journal of Neuroscience, 32, 11773–11779. doi: 10.1523/jneurosci.5912-11.2012
(2013). Structural brain anomalies and chronic pain: A quantitative meta-analysis of gray matter volume. Journal of Pain, 14, 663–675. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2013.03.001
(2000). Neuropathic pain: Nerves bursting with excitement. Neuroreport, 11, R17–R21.
(2002). Carpal tunnel syndrome modifies sensory hand cortical somatotopy: A MEG study. Human Brain Mapping, 17, 28–36.
(2008). Changes in brain gray matter due to repetitive painful stimulation. NeuroImage, 42, 845–849.
(1999). The cortical representation of pain. Pain, 79, 105–111.
(2000). The medial pain system, cingulate cortex, and parallel processing of nociceptive information. Progress in Brain Research, 122, 223–235.
(2013). Nutzung einer myoelektrischen Unterarmprothese mit Biofeedback. Reduktion von Phantomschmerz und Erhöhung der Funktionalität
([Use of a myoelectric forerarm prosthetic with biofeedback. Reduction of phantom pain and increase in functionality] . Trauma und Berufskrankheit, 15, 207–215.1998). Reorganization of the somatosensory cortex after amputation of the index finger. Neuroreport, 9, 213–216.
(2000). Rapid functional plasticity of the somatosensory cortex after finger amputation. Experimental Brain Research, 134, 199–203.
(2004). Rapid functional plasticity in the primary somatomotor cortex and perceptual changes after nerve block. European Journal of Neuroscience, 20, 3413–3423.
(2002). Enhanced tactile spatial acuity and cortical processing during acute hand deafferentation. Nature Neuroscience, 5, 936–938.
(2004). Voltage-gated sodium channels and pain pathways. Journal of Neurobiology, 61, 55–71.
(2000). Neuronal plasticity: Increasing the gain in pain. Science, 288, 1765–1768.
(2009). Neuropathic pain and primary somatosensory cortex reorganization following spinal cord injury. Pain, 141, 52–59.
(