ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2020
Linking Pain Sensation to the Autonomic Nervous System: The Role of the Anterior Cingulate and Periaqueductal Gray Resting-State Networks.
Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 83 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between medication-induced xerostomia and orofacial pain: a systematic review.Quintessence international (Berlin, Germany : 1985) · 2023Pooled it
- The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality in Managing Acute Pain and Anxiety for Medical Inpatients: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Pooled it
- Sex-Related Effects of Adrenergic Drugs on Conditioned Pain Modulation: A Randomized Controlled Cross-Over Double-Blind Trial.Pain research & management · 2022Trial
- Review
- A Causal Association Study Between Brain Imaging Features and the Risk of Large Artery Atherosclerosis: A Two-sample Mendelian Randomization Study.Journal of molecular neuroscience : MN · 2026Article
- Heart Rate Variability Mediates the Association Between Fear of Pain and Pain Perception: An Exploratory Study in Healthy Controls.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Pain assessment using physiological responses/markers in different types of pain: a scoping review.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Pupillary Pain Index-Guided Postoperative Pain Therapy in ENT Surgery: A Randomized Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- CRH neurons in the AM-ACC circuit drive chronic pain and anxiety comorbidity.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Temporal dynamics of heart rate variability reveal stressor-specific autonomic patterns: a multi-stressor study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Association between altered baroreflex control and pain intensity in fibromyalgia.BMC neurology · 2025Article
- Complications and Ethical Challenges in Neurosurgery for Psychiatric Disorders.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Sensory-emotional-cognitive effects of resistance exercise and Tai Chi exercise in Japanese community-dwelling older adults with chronic pain: a non-randomized controlled trial.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2025Article
- A Novel Investigation of an In-Scanner Alternative to the Cold Pressor Test in Healthy Individuals.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Do Pain and Autonomic Regulation Share a Common Central Compensatory Pathway? A Meta-Analysis of HRV Metrics in Pain Trials.NeuroSci · 2025Review
- Proposing a short version of the Unesp-Botucatu pig acute pain scale using a novel application of machine learning technique.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Chronic Stress and Headaches: The Role of the HPA Axis and Autonomic Nervous System.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Concussion and the Autonomic, Immune, and Endocrine Systems: An Introduction to the Field and a Treatment Framework for Persisting Symptoms.Journal of personalized medicine · 2025Review
- Pain and the autonomic nervous system. The role of non-invasive neuromodulation with NESA microcurrents.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
There are bi-directional interactions between the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and pain. This is likely underpinned by a substantial overlap between brain areas of the central autonomic network and areas involved in pain processing and modulation. To date, however, relatively little is known about the neuronal substrates of the ANS-pain association. Here, we acquired resting state fMRI scans in 21 healthy subjects at rest and during tonic noxious cold stimulation. As indicators of autonomic function, we examined how heart rate variability (HRV) frequency measures were influenced by tonic noxious stimulation and how these variables related to participants' pain perception and to brain functional connectivity in regions known to play a role in both ANS regulation and pain perception, namely the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and periaqueductal gray (PAG). Our findings support a role of the cardiac ANS in brain connectivity during pain, linking functional connections of the dACC and PAG with measurements of low frequency (LF)-HRV. In particular, we identified a three-way relationship between the ANS, cortical brain networks known to underpin pain processing, and participants' subjectively reported pain experiences. LF-HRV both at rest and during pain correlated with functional connectivity between the seed regions and other cortical areas including the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), left anterior insula (AI), and the precuneus. Our findings link cardiovascular autonomic parameters to brain activity changes involved in the elaboration of nociceptive information, thus beginning to elucidate underlying brain mechanisms associated with the reciprocal relationship between autonomic and pain-related systems.
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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.