Learning Body-Site Specific Imagination-Induced Pain in Nine Individuals

Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre 

Pain imagination involves mentally simulating or recalling painful experiences without actual nociceptive input. This cognitive process can influence athletic performance, physical rehabilitation, and anxiety by activating sensory pathways similar to real pain. While imagined sensations have been shown to produce somatotopic neural activity, no prior study has compared this to the somatotopy of verum pain.

Using nine subjects, this study takes a precision functional deep-phenotyping approach to compare individual-level overlap in pain- and somatotopy-relevant brain activity. It explores how brain regions like the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and prefrontal cortex contribute to pain imagination and examines whether imagined and experienced pain share a somatotopic bodymap. This spatial mapping of body regions is essential for pain responses, but it remains unclear if imagined pain activates these maps similarly to verum pain.