Pain

Research within this line is aimed to develop and implement a neuro-feedback protocol for treatment of chronic low back pain. Habituation of pain, a phenomenon that generally occurs after repeated painful stimuli, results in anti-nociception. The process of habituation is severely impaired with chronic pain and the focus of research is to modulate this habituation process in order to reduce chronic pain complaints in patients. First, neural mechanisms of habituation to pain, using fMRI, in healthy individuals will be studied. Secondly, habituation to pain will be studied in a population of chronic low back pain patients. The results from these studies will be used to develop a real-time (rt) neurofeedback protocol for the treatment of chronic low back pain. Finally, this rt-neurofeedback intervention will be tested in a randomized clinical trial. The working hypothesis is that stimulating the pain habituation process with use of a neuro-feedback protocol results in reduction of chronic pain complaints.