Pain is a multifactorial response, and it is therefore difficult to identify pain-specific brain areas. To identify a brain area involved in all aspects of the pain response, Segerdahl et al. monitored changes in cerebral blood flow that paralleled the response to heat-induced pain mediated by capsaicin application to the lower right leg. They showed that, in humans, the dorsal posterior insula is vital for experiencing pain during the course of the pain response, including during onset, habituation and pain relief.
References
Segerdahl, A. R. et al. The dorsal posterior insula subserves a fundamental role in human pain. Nature Neurosci. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.3969 (2015)
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Lewis, S. Pinpointing the pain producer. Nat Rev Neurosci 16, 247 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3948
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3948