PROJECT: JTC 2025 - Pain: NeuroPain

Chronic pain is a multifaceted and debilitating condition that affects millions of people worldwide. Its variable manifestations, both between and within individuals, underscore the need for novel, personalised therapeutic approaches. The proposed project combines functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and focused ultrasound (FUS) to pioneer an innovative two-step approach to treating chronic pain. By using neuroimaging to localise pain-related brain regions and high-precision neuromodulation, our research aims to advance personalised medicine in chronic pain therapy. In a crossover placebo-controlled and double-blind study, each of the participants (12f/12m) with chronic pain will receive three FUS interventions: 1) common cortical targeting (e.g. the anterior insula), 2) personalised targeting, and 3) sham stimulation as a placebo control. Over five sessions, fMRI will be used to reliably map individually-specific cortical areas that correlate with pain perception. Subsequently, participants will undergo multiple FUS sessions to assess the efficacy of targeted neuromodulation in reducing the intensity of chronic pain. The novelty of the study lies in its personalised approach, integrating state-of-the-art neuroimaging with non-invasive neuromodulation to address the heterogeneous nature of chronic pain.