Scientists Find They Can Detect Pain Using fMRI Scans

Scientists have discovered that functional magnetic resonance imaging, otherwise known as fMRI, can accurately detect and assess the amount of pain a person is feeling from heat. The new study,published online in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, found that fMRI can determine the amount of pain a person is experiencing from the application of heat with an accuracy rate of up to 94 percent, using a person's neurological signature.

Much of the study, which was broken up into four different parts, focused on whether or not a person's neurological signature could be used by fMRI to determine whether a person was experiencing actual pain from heat or simply "non-painful warmth," as explained by the NEJM piece. The rest of the study focused on determining intensity.

Here is some of the key information to emerge on Wednesday from this study into fMRI and pain assessment.

* The study involved a relatively small sample group, of just 114 people. Those 114 people were then asked to participate in a cluster of four different batches of research, designed to test the efficacy of fMRI in determining painful heat versus normal reaction to warmth, as well as sensitivity and the difference between social and actual physical pain. The fourth battery of tests involved then measuring the body's response to the analgesic remifentanil.

* The study did not research whether or not clinical, or pain that was not heat-related, could be measured using fMRI.

* As noted by Wired UK, the pain being experienced was also broken into four different measurements -- anticipated pain, social pain, remembered pain, and physical heat pain.

* Only physical heat pain appeared to leave recognizable markers when participants' brains were subjected to fMRI.

* After the markers for physical heat pain were identified, scientists looked at whether or not those markers tended to quiet down or be reduced after the application of the analgesic remifentanil. They found that the effects of the medication could also be read using fMRI.

* The study authors noted that scientists want to be able to develop other means to more accurately identify the level of pain a person is experiencing, as currently doctors are forced to rely solely on self-reporting from the patient to try and analyze their condition and diagnose issues.

* Neuroscientist Tor Wager of the University of Colorado-Boulder told the Associated Press on Wednesday that researchers want to be able to more accurately detect and measure pain so that they can help those who cannot self-report what they are feeling -- such as babies and those with dementia or other issues that would render them unable to speak or communicate what they are experiencing.

* Wager also said that imaging may be able to help those that are experiencing chronic pain, because they are "not always believed," as quoted by the Associated Press.

Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in health and nutrition issues.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-detect-pain-using-fmri-scans-154500014.html

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