ReviewPain reports
Brainstem neuroimaging of nociception and pain circuitries.
Review in Pain reports. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Yoga Nidra and Pain: A between-, within-Group Meta-Analysis and Dose Response Meta-Regression.Complementary medicine research · 2025Pooled it
- Coordinate-based (ALE) meta-analysis of acupuncture for musculoskeletal pain.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Auricular Vagus Neuromodulation-A Systematic Review on Quality of Evidence and Clinical Effects.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Open-Label Placebo Injection for Chronic Back Pain With Functional Neuroimaging: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Brain signatures of nociplastic pain: Fibromyalgia Index and descending modulation at population level.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Brain mechanisms of pain anticipation in chronic low back pain: Insights into phenotypical responses to mind-body therapy.The journal of pain · 2026Article
- Article
- Iron-Sensitive MRI Reveals Individual Differences in Pain Modulation Rather Than Categorical Markers in Chronic Pain and Migraine.Pain research & management · 2026Article
- Prenatal alcohol exposure promotes nerve injury-induced pathological pain following morphine treatment via NLRP3-mediated peripheral and central proinflammatory immune actions.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Article
- Autonomic Dysregulation Mediates the Association Between Childhood Trauma and Pain Severity: Evidence from a Mediation Model.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Brain morphological changes in type 2 diabetes patients with painful peripheral neuropathy.Metabolic brain disease · 2025Article
- Integrative Functions of the Hypothalamus: Linking Cognition, Emotion and Physiology for Well-being and Adaptability.Annals of neurosciences · 2025Review
- A new vision of the role of the cerebellum in pain processing.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2025Review
- A comprehensive review of the supraspinal mechanisms of spinal cord stimulation on chronic pain and cognition.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Alteration of BDNF and noradrenergic markers in locus coeruleus in a mouse model of cancer-induced bone pain.PloS one · 2025Article
- Brain Gene Regulatory Networks Coordinate Nest Construction in Birds.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Central Sensitization and Pain: Pathophysiologic and Clinical Insights.Current neuropharmacology · 2024Article
- Abnormal Degree Centrality in Zoster-Associated Pain with or Without Psychiatric Comorbidities: A Resting-State Functional MRI Study.Journal of pain research · 2024Article
- Disrupted Resting-State Functional Connectivity and Effective Connectivity of the Nucleus Accumbens in Chronic Low Back Pain: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of pain research · 2024Article
- Reduced brainstem volume is associated with mobility impairments in youth with cerebral palsy.Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The brainstem is known to be an important brain area for nociception and pain processing, and both relaying and coordinating signaling between the cerebrum, cerebellum, and spinal cord. Although preclinical models of pain have characterized the many roles that brainstem nuclei play in nociceptive processing, the degree to which these circuitries extend to humans is not as well known. Unfortunately, the brainstem is also a very challenging region to evaluate in humans with neuroimaging. The challenges for human brainstem imaging arise from the location of this elongated brain structure, proximity to cardiorespiratory noise sources, and the size of its constituent nuclei. These challenges can require dedicated approaches to brainstem imaging, which should be adopted when study hypotheses are focused on brainstem processing of nociception or modulation of pain perception. In fact, our review will highlight many pain neuroimaging studies that have reported some brainstem involvement in nociceptive processing and chronic pain pathology. However, we note that with recent advances in neuroimaging leading to improved spatial and temporal resolution, more studies are needed that take advantage of data collection and analysis methods focused on the challenges of brainstem neuroimaging.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.