Central nervous system reorganisation after spinal cord injury: its relationship to pain and response to mental imagery
Pain Research Institute Liverpool, Award: £35,264, Date of Award: 15 Mar 07
We have shown in people with phantom limb pain that regularly practised mental imagery reduces phantom pain and sensory and motor cortical reorganisation. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), we now wish to investigate the cerebral correlates of spinal cord injury (SCI) and SCI pain; the effects of imagined movement of and sensation in paralysed limbs on pain and cortical and thalamic neuroplastic changes, and any association between the two.
Study design: pilot study: 5 people with stable SCI and pain, 5 people without pain, and 5 healthy volunteers will participate. Participants will initially undergo fMRI scans during a series of tasks to measure the effects of SCI on cerebral activation. We hypothesise that those with pain will show more extensive functional reorganisation. Following training in mental imagery, the scans will be repeated. We hypothesise that this training will relieve SCI pain and reduce neuroplastic changes.