Descending modulation and central sensitisation in neuropathic pain
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mechanisms of ongoing peripheral drive, central sensitisation and endogenous (descending) pain modulation in a post-surgical pain model following a lower alveolar nerve injury with neuropathic pain.
IRAS ID
254806
Contact name
Tara Renton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 30 days
Research summary
In this research, we will try to understand how the brain represents pain after trauma to the lower alveolar nerve (lower jaw nerve), caused by dental procedures. We will use different MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) techniques to do this. These are ‘evoked-response’ functional MRI (i.e how the brain responds to an external painful and non painful stimuli; fMRI), ‘resting-state’ fMRI (how the brain behaves when we are not doing anything), and perfusion MRI (measures of blood flow in different parts of the brain). These MRI measurements will be taken before and after injections, which are often used by dentists to make the area where the nerve supplies innervation go numb (like when we have a filling). These types of injections are known as ‘local anaesthetic blockades’. The blockade of the lower alveolar nerve is therefore called the inferior alveolar nerve block. While we know that pain signals come from where the body is injured, sometimes the nervous system also changes if we feel any pain and how much pain we feel, in what we call 'central sensitisation'. By using these injections, we will try to separate the pain signals that come from where the damage is (lower jaw nerve), from those created by the central nervous system (the brain), and then, we will compare what we see in patients to what we see in healthy people's brains when we do exactly the same, just to see where and how the brains of patients work differently. This work will help us understand both these types of pain. On the long-term, having this understanding will help us develop better treatments for pain.
REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0446
Date of REC Opinion
24 May 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion