Multimodal Neuroimaging Approaches to Pain in Adolescents

Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre 

Chronic musculoskeletal pain in adolescents is linked to structural and functional brain alterations that are challenging to measure. This presentation describes a multimodal neuroimaging approach combining task-based functional MRI and diffusion MRI to investigate these changes. Unlike analyzing these modalities independently, combining them through structural-functional coupling offers a more comprehensive understanding of how white matter connectivity supports task-evoked brain activity. Structural-functional coupling analyses were applied to data from a cohort of adolescents with chronic musculoskeletal pain, to identify subgroups based on coupling patterns, self-reported questionnaire measures, and task-evoked brain activity. This approach enhances the ability to link brain mechanisms to pain phenotypes and supports the development of biomarkers for chronic pain in adolescents.