Pain Physiology: Innovative Methods and Technologies to Assess and Treat Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is one of the leading causes of disability, affecting millions of people worldwide. Despite its high impact and consecutive burden on both personal and social levels, the underlying physiology is still poorly understood, with many neural mechanisms remaining unknown. The lack of knowledge in this field may hinder the development of effective strategies- both pharmacological and non-pharmacological - for pain relief, worsening the quality of life for those living with chronic pain.

Recent advances in biomedical instrumentation for physiological signals monitoring may help in better understanding the pathophysiology underlying chronic pain. From advanced neuroimaging to wearable sensors, there are diverse modalities to observe the physiology of individuals suffering from chronic pain, along with various settings in which they can be monitored. These tools can provide unprecedented insights into the complex interactions between neural, physiological, and psychological factors in chronic pain.

The goal of this Research Topic is to collect innovative strategies to gain insights into the physiology of chronic pain.

Potential areas of interest may include, but are not limited to:

● Assessment of invasive procedures, such as deep brain stimulation (DBS), cortex stimulation, and spinal cord stimulation (SCS), and non-invasive procedures, like transcranial magnetic stimulations (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), for reducing chronic pain;
● Neuroimaging techniques for chronic pain;
● Wearable technology for pain assessment in real-world environment;
● Automatic methods for objective pain assessment – Machine Learning and Deep Learning applications;
● Impact of brain aging on pain perception and management;
● Emotional process of chronic pain: Psychological and physiological assessment.

We encourage all interested researchers to submit a manuscript summary before submitting their manuscript. These short abstract-like summaries do not have to coincide with the final abstract of the manuscripts. Their purpose is to serve as a summary for the article you plan to submit.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Chronic Pain. Neuroimaging, Physiology, Wearable Sensors, Pain Assessment, Machine Learning, Emotional assessment, Pain perception

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.