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.

Trends

Pain is a vital phenomenon that depends on the dynamic integration of sensory and contextual processes. In chronic pain the adaptive integration of sensory and contextual processes is severely disturbed.

Neuronal oscillations and synchrony at different frequencies provide evidence on information flow across brain areas. The flexible relationship between oscillations at different frequencies and pain indicates flexible routing of information flow in the cerebral processing of pain.

The systematic assessment of oscillations and synchrony in the processing of pain provides insights into how sensory and contextual processes are flexibly integrated into a coherent percept and into abnormalities of these processes in chronic pain. Predictive coding frameworks might help us understand these integration processes.