Center for Higher Brain Functions, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China.
Neurosci Bull. 2009 Oct;25(5):267-76. doi: 10.1007/s12264-009-0918-z.
Pain perception and its genesis in the human brain have been reviewed recently. In the current article, the reports on pain modulation in the human brain were reviewed from higher cortical regulation, i.e. top-down effect, particularly studied in psychological determinants. Pain modulation can be examined by gene therapy, physical modulation, pharmacological modulation, psychological modulation, and pathophysiological modulation. In psychological modulation, this article examined (a) willed determination, (b) distraction, (c) placebo, (d) hypnosis, (e) meditation, (f) qi-gong, (g) belief, and (h) emotions, respectively, in the brain function for pain modulation. In each, the operational definition, cortical processing, neuroimaging, and pain modulation were systematically deliberated. However, not all studies had featured the brain modulation processing but rather demonstrated potential effects on human pain. In our own studies on the emotional modulation on human pain, we observed that emotions could be induced from music melodies or pictures perception for reduction of tonic human pain, mainly in potentiation of the posterior alpha EEG fields, likely resulted from underneath activities of precuneous in regulation of consciousness, including pain perception. To sum, higher brain functions become the leading edge research in all sciences. How to solve the information bit of thinking and feeling in the brain can be the greatest challenge of human intelligence. Application of higher cortical modulation of human pain and suffering can lead to the progress of social humanity and civilization.
最近对人类大脑的疼痛感知及其产生机制进行了回顾。在本文中，我们从高级皮质调节（即自上而下的效应），特别是在心理决定因素方面，对人类大脑中的疼痛调节进行了综述。疼痛调节可以通过基因治疗、物理调节、药物调节、心理调节和病理生理调节来进行研究。在心理调节方面，本文分别研究了（a）意志决定，（b）分散注意力，（c）安慰剂，（d）催眠，（e）冥想，（f）气功，（g）信仰和（h）情绪在大脑功能中的作用。在每种情况下，都系统地讨论了其操作定义、皮质处理、神经影像学和疼痛调节。然而，并非所有研究都涉及大脑调节处理，而是证明了它们对人类疼痛的潜在影响。在我们关于人类疼痛的情绪调节的研究中，我们观察到，情绪可以通过音乐旋律或图片感知来诱发，以减轻人类的紧张性疼痛，主要是在后 alpha EEG 场的增强，可能是由于下顶叶在意识调节中的活动，包括疼痛感知。总之，高级大脑功能成为所有科学的前沿研究。如何解决大脑中思维和感觉的信息位，可以说是人类智能的最大挑战。人类疼痛和苦难的高级皮质调节的应用，可以促进社会人类和文明的进步。
