Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32943915›Full record

ArticleJournal of pain research2020

Altered Brainstem Pain-Modulation Circuitry Connectivity During Spontaneous Pain Intensity Fluctuations.

Emily P Mills, Zeynab Alshelh, Danny Kosanovic, Flavia Di Pietro, E Russell Vickers, Paul M Macey, Luke A Henderson

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of pain research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed
1.7field-weighted citation impact, top 16% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

16 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Electrotherapy in the management of neuropathic corneal pain: narrative review.Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2026
    Review
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  4. Short-term variability of chronic musculoskeletal pain.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Emily P MillsDepartment of Anatomy and Histology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Zeynab AlshelhDepartment of Anatomy and Histology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-8916-9037
Danny KosanovicDepartment of Anatomy and Histology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Flavia Di PietroDepartment of Anatomy and Histology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-9642-0805
E Russell VickersDepartment of Anatomy and Histology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Paul M MaceySchool of Nursing and Brain Research Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4093-7458
Luke A HendersonDepartment of Anatomy and Histology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
The University of Sydney · AUUniversity of California, Los Angeles · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundChronic pain, particularly that following nerve injury, can occur in the absence of external stimuli. Although the ongoing pain is sometimes continuous, in many individuals the intensity of their pain fluctuates. Experimental animal studies have shown that the brainstem contains circuits that modulate nociceptive information at the primary afferent synapse and these circuits are involved in maintaining ongoing continuous neuropathic pain. However, it remains unknown if these circuits are involved in regulating fluctuations of ongoing neuropathic pain in humans.

methodsWe used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine whether in 19 subjects with painful trigeminal neuropathy, brainstem pain-modulation circuitry function changes according to moment-to-moment fluctuations in spontaneous pain intensity as rated online over a 12-minute period.

resultsWe found that when pain intensity was spontaneously high, connectivity strengths between regions of the brainstem endogenous pain-modulating circuitry-the midbrain periaqueductal gray, rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM), and the spinal trigeminal nucleus (SpV)-were high, and vice-versa (when pain was low, connectivity was low). Additionally, sliding-window connectivity analysis using 50-second windows revealed a significant positive relationship between ongoing pain intensity and RVM-SpV connectivity over the duration of the 12-minute scan.

conclusionThese data reveal that moment-to-moment changes in brainstem pain-modulation circuitry functioning likely contribute to fluctuations in spontaneous pain intensity in individuals with chronic neuropathic pain.

Indexed as

dynamic connectivityfunctional connectivitymidbrain periaqueductal gray matterrostral ventromedial medullaspinal trigeminal nucleusspontaneous pain

Identifiers

PMID32943915
PMCPMC7481287
OpenAlexW3081621606

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

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.