Neurologic Signatures of Chronic Pain Disorders

Summary

"Brain signatures" as objective measures of acute pain have been characterized with functional magnetic resonance image and machine learning technology. As compared to acute pain, chronic pain leads to greater socioeconomic burden. However, measures for chronic pain remain subjective and suboptimal, and the brain signatures for chronic pain are largely unknown. Chronic migraine and fibromyalgia are two prototypes primary chronic pain disorders with high disability and intractability with prevalence of around 2% for both diseases. These two chronic pain disorders have shared clinical presentations (abnormal pain sensitivity, mood and sleep disorders), pathophysiology (central sensitization) and medical treatment (anti-depressants), despite different body parts are involved (head vs. whole body). The present integrated project aims to characterize both common and disease-specific brain signatures of chronic pain by investigating these two chronic pain disorders. Our findings may shed some light on the key mechanisms of pain chronification, and may pave the way for the optimization of diagnosis and prognostication, as well as formulation of personalized medicine in chronic pain, so as to improve life quality of these patients and to reduce socioeconomic loss. The present project includes three interdisciplinary sub-projects (plus one animal study, not listed here): A: Clinical studies for chronic migraine and fibromyalgia: endophenotypes and pain chronification B: Functional neuroimaging of chronic pain: multimodal quantitative analysis of brain connectomes C. Data stream mining technology for multimodal physiological signals of chronic pain: real-time tracking and clinical correlation The specific aims of the present projects include: 1. Identification of common and disease-specific brain signatures for chronic pain (sub-projects A, B, C) 2. Investigation of clinical indicators with predictive values by machine learning analysis of big data (sub-projects A, B, C) 3. Elucidation of the specific anatomical structures or neural networks underpinning pain chronification based on clinical neuroimaging (sub-projects A, B) In this 1st-year pilot study of the 4-year longitudinal study, we will establish experimental platforms for each sub-project, start to recruit participants and perform endophenotyping, as well as have a preliminary integration for sub-projects A, B and C.

Timeline

Start

2015-12

Primary completion

2019-12

Completion

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Publications

• Wang YF, Tzeng YS, Pan LH, Ling YH, Chen SP, Chen WT, Lai KL, Liu HY, Wang SJ. Higher Circulating IL-6 levels as a predictor for poor outcome after migraine preventive treatment: a prospective study. J Headache Pain. 2025 Nov 10;26(1):245. doi: 10.1186/s10194-025-02200-2.
• Chuang CH, Li JY, King JT, Chen WT, Chen SP, Wang YF, Liu HY, Hsiao FJ, Pan LH, Wang SJ, Lai KL. Abnormal heart rate variability and its application in predicting treatment efficacy in patients with chronic migraine: An exploratory study. Cephalalgia. 2023 Oct;43(10):3331024231206781. doi: 10.1177/03331024231206781.
• Pan LH, Chen WT, Wang YF, Chen SP, Lai KL, Liu HY, Hsiao FJ, Wang SJ. Resting-state occipital alpha power is associated with treatment outcome in patients with chronic migraine. Pain. 2022 Jul 1;163(7):1324-1334. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002516. Epub 2021 Oct 13.
• Pan LH, Wang YF, Ling YH, Lai KL, Chen SP, Chen WT, Treede RD, Wang SJ. Pain sensitivities predict prophylactic treatment outcomes of flunarizine in chronic migraine patients: A prospective study. Cephalalgia. 2022 Aug;42(9):899-909. doi: 10.1177/03331024221080572. Epub 2022 Apr 11.
• Hsiao FJ, Chen WT, Liu HY, Wang YF, Chen SP, Lai KL, Hope Pan LL, Coppola G, Wang SJ. Migraine chronification is associated with beta-band connectivity within the pain-related cortical regions: a magnetoencephalographic study. Pain. 2021 Oct 1;162(10):2590-2598. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002255.
• Hsiao FJ, Chen WT, Ko YC, Liu HY, Wang YF, Chen SP, Lai KL, Lin HY, Coppola G, Wang SJ. Neuromagnetic Amygdala Response to Pain-Related Fear as a Brain Signature of Fibromyalgia. Pain Ther. 2020 Dec;9(2):765-781. doi: 10.1007/s40122-020-00206-z. Epub 2020 Oct 22.

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Indications