Orbitofrontal Cortex Implants to Assess Chronic Pain Save

Nature Neuroscience reports a novel approach to assessing chronic neuropathic pain - intracranial electrodes in the anterior cingulate cortex and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to map chronic pain signaling. 

Researchers from UCSF studied four individuals with refractory neuropathic pain and using implanted with chronic intracranial electrodes in the anterior cingulate cortex and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) they obtained direct neural recordings of pain metrics over several months and developed machine learning prediction models for chronic pain severity.

While the anterior cingulate cortex is important in acute and chronic pain perception, the orbitofrontal cortex, has not typically been studied in pain research, as it is an area involved in emotion regulation, self-evaluation and decision making.

This research has the potential to divert pain signaling in individuals with chronic refractory pain by using the OFC signals from an individual patient to develop personalized pain managment interventions.

The NY Times has more on this novel research.