Yazhuo Kong1, Michael Lee2, Catherine
Warnaby1, Vishwani Wanigasekera1, Mark Jenkinson1,
Irene Tracey1, Jonathan Brooks1
1FMRIB centre, Department of Clinical
Neurology, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom; 2Division
of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Chronic
pain is thought to arise due to maladaptive changes occurring at the level of
the spinal cord. To investigate such changes in humans, a non-invasive neuroimaging
technique is desirable. We have investigated the functional response in the
spinal cord of 18 healthy subjects to noxious stimulation using punctate and
thermal stimulation of the left and right arms. Group analysis, revealed
distinct regions of activity within the spinal cord that were dependent on
both the side of stimulation and the type of stimulus used. These results
present the first non-invasive evidence for a lateralised and
stimulus-specific spinal cord response.