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Volume 20, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1573-4056
  • E-ISSN: 1875-6603
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Abstract

Background

Although the essential components of pain pathways have been identified, a thorough comprehension of the interactions necessary for creating focused treatments is still lacking. Such include more standardised methods for measuring pain in clinical and preclinical studies and more representative study populations.

Objective

This review describes the essential neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of pain nociception and its relation with currently available neuroimaging methods focused on health professionals responsible for treating pain.

Methods

Conduct a PubMed search of pain pathways using pain-related search terms, selecting the most relevant and updated information.

Results

Current reviews of pain highlight the importance of their study in different areas from the cellular level, pain types, neuronal plasticity, ascending, descending, and integration pathways to their clinical evaluation and neuroimaging. Advanced neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI, PET, and MEG are used to better understand the neural mechanisms underlying pain processing and identify potential targets for pain therapy.

Conclusion

The study of pain pathways and neuroimaging methods allows physicians to evaluate and facilitate decision-making related to the pathologies that cause chronic pain. Some identifiable issues include a better understanding of the relationship between pain and mental health, developing more effective interventions for chronic pain's psychological and emotional aspects, and better integrating data from different neuroimaging modalities for the clinical efficacy of new pain therapies.

© 2024 Bentham Science Publishers
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Bentham Science Publisher. This is an open access article published under CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
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2024-11-23

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Current Concepts of Pain Pathways: A Brief Review of Anatomy, Physiology, and Medical Imaging
Curr. Med. Imaging 20, e190523217114 (2024); https://doi.org/10.2174/1573405620666230519144112
/content/journals/cmir/10.2174/1573405620666230519144112
/content/journals/cmir/10.2174/1573405620666230519144112
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  • Article Type:     Review Article
Keyword(s): Magnetic resonance imaging; Neuroimaging modalities; Nociceptive pathways; Pain central nervous system anatomy; Pain therapies; Surgical pain approaches

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