Project description
Imaging chronic pain
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic neurological condition associated with prolonged pain and inflammation in the extremities, usually after injury. A core CRPS symptom is fear of painful touch, triggered by stimuli that are usually not painful. This exacerbates pain intensity, causing functional disability. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the FABrIC project aims to investigate the neural mechanism underlying this pain vulnerability. The project also seeks to identify potential sensory impairments. To achieve their goals, FABrIC researchers will employ functional magnetic resonance imaging in healthy individuals and in CRPS patients.
Objective
Chronic pain affects > 20% of people worldwide leading to enormous personal suffering and economic burden. A key factor contributing to chronic pain disability that thus far has been neglected is fear of painful touch - a core symptom in people with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). FABrIC (FeAr of painful touch in the BraIn in Chronic pain) is a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study using a novel tactile fear conditioning paradigm. I will examine the neural correlates of acquisition, generalization and extinction of fear of painful touch and interrelationships with somatosensory neuroplasticity, and sensory impairments in individuals with CRPS compared to healthy controls. Also, I will investigate how individual differences in vulnerability and resilience factors can modulate fear learning and how they affect pain-related outcomes. This MSCA project is groundbreaking and can yield novel insights in hypothesized intertwined underlying neural mechanisms of pain-related fear and relations with symptoms. I will uniquely and necessarily bridge the gap between different disciplines and pain researchers from physiotherapy, neuroscience, and psychology fields studying the same complex chronic pain disorder. Persons with CRPS endorsed the relevance of this project, which provides opportunities to alleviate the CRPS stigma and improve treatments based on newly gained insights. Maastricht University and the interdisciplinary outstanding research groups are ideal to perform this fellowship. The host developed and pioneered the tactile fear conditioning paradigm. This fellowship will provide the exceptional chance to synergistically combine my expertise of chronic pain and quantitative sensory testing with neuroscientific, neuroimaging, and threat-safety-learning expertise at the host, thereby crucially contributing to the establishment of my own independent chronic pain-brain research line, my career development and sustainable scientific collaborations.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesneurobiology
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinephysiotherapy
- social sciencespsychology
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
6200 MD Maastricht
Netherlands