Opioid analgesia alters corticospinal coupling along the descending pain system in healthy participants.

ABSTRACT: Opioids are potent analgesic drugs with widespread cortical, subcortical, and spinal targets. In particular, the central pain system comprising ascending and descending pain pathways has high opioid receptor densities and is thus crucial for opioid analgesia. Here, we investigated the effects of the opioid remifentanil in a large sample (n = 78) of healthy male participants using combined corticospinal functional MRI. This approach offers the possibility to measure BOLD responses simultaneously in the brain and spinal cord, allowing us to investigate the role of corticospinal coupling in opioid analgesia. Our data show that opioids altered activity in regions involved in pain processing such as somatosensory regions, including the spinal cord and pain modulation such as prefrontal regions.

SUBMITTER: Tinnermann A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9042228 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature