Using long-term brain recordings in patients with chronic pain, we identified objective biomarkers of real-world subjective pain intensity over many months. Spontaneous chronic pain states were predicted most reliably by sustained changes in the activity of the orbitofrontal cortex, whereas acute pain was most associated with signals from the anterior cingulate cortex.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$189.00 per year
only $15.75 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Get just this article for as long as you need it
$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Rikard, S. M., Strahan, A. E., Schmit, K. M. & Guy, G. P. Jr. Chronic pain among adults — United States, 2019–2021. Morb. Mortal. Wkly Rep. 72, 379–385 (2023). A US report on the prevalence of chronic pain.
Melzack, R. From the gate to the neuromatrix. Pain 82, S121 (1999). A review article that introduced the concept of a brain network representation of pain and the factors that influence pain perception.
Reckziegel, D. et al. Deconstructing biomarkers for chronic pain: context- and hypothesis-dependent biomarker types in relation to chronic pain. Pain 160, S37–S48 (2019). A review that discusses chronic and acute pain biomarker development in animal and human mechanistic studies.
Davis, K. D. et al. Discovery and validation of biomarkers to aid the development of safe and effective pain therapeutics: challenges and opportunities. Nat. Rev. Neurol. 16, 381–400 (2020). A consensus statement on the most promising research avenues for prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers of pain.
Shirvalkar, P. et al. Closed-loop deep brain stimulation for refractory chronic pain. Front. Comput. Neurosci. 12, 18 (2018). A review that integrates the history of DBS for chronic pain with biomarker studies toward the development of closed-loop DBS.
Wong, J. K. et al. Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: advances in cutting edge technologies, artificial intelligence, neuromodulation, neuroethics, pain, interventional psychiatry, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 16, 813387 (2022). A review of the latest technology and applications of brain stimulation for various disorders.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This is a summary of: Shirvalkar, P. et al. First-in-human prediction of chronic pain state using intracranial neural biomarkers. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01338-z (2023).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chronic brain recordings reveal objective biomarkers of chronic pain. Nat Neurosci (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01340-5
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01340-5
