In recent years, the identification of pain-specific biomarkers has become the holy grail of pain research in the fMRI community. Painful stimuli, salient (attention capturing) non-painful stimuli, and nociceptive stimuli in analgesic subjects (who cannot feel pain) elicit similar BOLD patterns that cannot be resolved at 3T. Recognizing this shortcoming we present preliminary fMRI data at 7T (double spatial resolution), comparing painful stimuli with isosalient non-painful stimuli in healthy volunteers and an analgesic subject who is insensitive to pain. The overall goal of this study is to detail the evoked neurosignatures for pain-specificity and identify diagnostic biomarkers of pain experience.
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