Pain type matters to brain
Chronic back pain affects different parts of the brain than acute back pain does, magnetic resonance images reveal. Researchers say that the area of the brain responding to chronic pain is also associated with emotional distress.
A. Vania Apkarian and his colleagues at Northwestern University Medical Center in Chicago asked people with chronic backaches to undergo magnetic resonance imaging of their brains. While in the scanner, the patients rated their pain levels, which fluctuated spontaneously.