Attenuation of cortical activity triggering descending pain inhibition in chronic low back pain patients: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Purpose A considerable portion of chronic low back pain (cLBP) patients lack anatomical abnormality, resist conventional therapeutic interventions, and their symptoms are often complicated with psychological and social factors. Such patients have been reported to show cerebral abnormalities both in anatomy and function by neuroimaging studies. Here we examined differences in cerebral reactivity to a simulated low back pain stimulus between cLBP patients and healthy controls by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and their behavioral correlates from a psychophysical questionnaire.