Airing Pain 31: Brain Imaging: Looking into your pain

How pain can be seen in the brain, and the research showing pain to be a condition in its own right

This programme was funded by Pain Concern’s supporters and friends.

In this programme we feature two areas of research which are helping in the understanding of pain.

Professor Karen Davis, a neuroscientist at the University of Toronto, Canada, explains how brain-imaging technology has revealed the overlap between experiences of pain and other sensations such as fear.

Dr Yves De Koninck, Director of the Quebec Pain Research Network, discusses how the latest research on chronic pain supports the position that pain is a condition in its own right caused by abnormalities in the nervous system.

Issues covered in this programme include: Brain imaging, pain as a condition in its own right, chronic primary pain, nervous system, medical research, MRI, brain signals, neurochemistry, pain perception and advancements in technology.

Contributors:

• Professor Karen Davis, neuroscientist, University of Toronto
• Dr Yves De Koninck, Director of the Quebec Pain Research Network.