Mechanistic dissection of the attentional modulation of pain (360G-Wellcome-203963_Z_16_A)

My study starts from the finding that different cognitive states have the ability to modulate the perception of pain. For example, distraction from pain was shown to have an analgesic effect, causing a decrease in perceived pain intensity. This is an interesting process because many chronic pain conditions are characterised by disrupted attentional processes and also by inability to appropriately regulate pain perception. I will perform fMRI scans on healthy participants that will receive a thermal noxious stimulus while doing an attentional task. They will also be administered with the opioid receptor antagonist naltrexone and the noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor reboxetine with the purpose of understanding the contribution of the endogenous opioidergic and noradrenergic systems to this process. I will analyse both brain activation and connectivity using psychophysiological interactions (PPI) and Dynamic Causal modelling (DCM), with a focus on the brain stem and the spinal cord. This study will help to better understand the network that underlies the attentional modulation of pain and to identify potential targets for chronic pain patients treatment.