Neural correlates of altered reward-driven attention in chronic pain and opioid use.

ABSTRACT: While attentional processing of reward may be altered in chronic pain, the neural circuits underlying these alterations, and impact from opioid use have remained unclear. To investigate the neural representation of attentional processing in chronic pain, we collected brain fMRI data from patients (fibromyalgia; taking vs. not taking opioids) vs. pain-free controls during performance of a reward task. We selected the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and lateral occipital cortex (LOC) as attention-relevant regions of interest. While IFG and LOC responses were not significantly different across groups, we observed decreased IFG response during reward anticipation in patients (uncorrected, p = 0.05). When evaluating LOC-IFG functional connectivity, vs. controls, we observed significantly reduced L

SUBMITTER: Park SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12032050 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature