A computational model unifies apparently contradictory findings concerning phantom pain

Amputation often leads to painful phantom sensations, whose pathogenesis is still unclear. Supported by experimental findings, an explanatory model has been proposed that identifies maladaptive reorganization of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) as a cause of phantom pain. However, it was recent...

Verfasser: Boström, Kim
Lussanet, Marc H. E. de
Weiß, Thomas
Puta, Christian
Wagner, Heiko
FB/Einrichtung:FB 05: Medizinische Fakultät
FB 07: Psychologie und Sportwissenschaft
Dokumenttypen:Artikel
Medientypen:Text
Erscheinungsdatum:2014
Publikation in MIAMI:21.11.2014
Datum der letzten Änderung:16.04.2019
Angaben zur Ausgabe:[Electronic ed.]
Quelle:Scientific Reports 4 (2014) 5298, 1-9
Schlagwörter:Computational models; Network models; Chronic pain; Somatosensory system
Fachgebiet (DDC):796: Sportarten, Sportspiele
Lizenz:CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Sprache:English
Anmerkungen:Finanziert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds 2014/2015 der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) und der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU Münster).
Format:PDF-Dokument
ISSN:2045-2322
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-91339564480
Weitere Identifikatoren:DOI: doi:10.1038/srep05298
Permalink:https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-91339564480
Onlinezugriff:srep05298.pdf

Amputation often leads to painful phantom sensations, whose pathogenesis is still unclear. Supported by experimental findings, an explanatory model has been proposed that identifies maladaptive reorganization of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) as a cause of phantom pain. However, it was recently found that BOLD activity during voluntary movements of the phantom positively correlates with phantom pain rating, giving rise to a model of persistent representation. In the present study, we develop a physiologically realistic, computational model to resolve the conflicting findings. Simulations yielded that both the amount of reorganization and the level of cortical activity during phantom movements were enhanced in a scenario with strong phantom pain as compared to a scenario with weak phantom pain. These results suggest that phantom pain, maladaptive reorganization, and persistent representation may all be caused by the same underlying mechanism, which is driven by an abnormally enhanced spontaneous activity of deafferented nociceptive channels.