Exploring the pain “neuromatrix”

A considerable number of functional imaging studies have demonstrated the involvement of multiple central regions during the experience of pain. These regions process information in circuits that can broadly be assumed to process the affective, sensory, cognitive, motor, inhibitory, and autonomic responses stimulated by a noxious event. The concept of a “neuromatrix” for pain processing is, therefore, well supported. There is, however, scant evidence for any particular regional or circuit dysfunction during clinical pain. To be clinically useful, functional imaging may have to step beyond the generalities of the neuromatrix.