Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Laura Frey Law, Associate Professor, recently received an NIH R03 grant entitled “Phenotyping Evoked Central Sensitivity to Painful Stimuli.”

Chronic musculoskeletal pain affects more Americans than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined according to the recent Institute of Medicine Pain Report (2011), yet we lack fundamental knowledge regarding the underlying mechanisms involved. Increasingly, we have learned that pain is not simply a direct link between the injury and the brain, but that the central nervous system can modify and adapt the signal – amplifying or diminishing the final pain perception.  This study will assess multiple tests that can be used in humans to quantify these central nervous system pathways, to better understand their role in pain perception that has relevance to millions of Americans’ current and future health.