Your arm hurts, but it's difficult for someone else to say just how much it really hurts. Scientists have been searching for a way to measure pain and new research suggests they are getting closer.
Researchers at Stanford University trained a computer algorithm to interpret magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of the brain and determine the presence of pain, according to a new study published Tuesday in the online journal PLoS ONE.
Researchers applied heat directly to the forearms of 8 study participants. The subjects reported a pain score of 7 out of 10 pain, when the temperature their skin was exposed to reached about 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the participants were undergoing this heat exposure, MRI scanners tracked their brain activity. Then the computer compared data when participants were undergoing MRIs without experiencing any pain.
The computer algorithms effectively learned how to recognize the difference between pain and non-pain in the human brain.
When presented with additional sets of brain scans from sixteen new participants, the computer algorithm correctly identified about 80% of the time which brains were experiencing pain, and which were not.
Researchers have long known that pain registers on MRI scans, but having a computer algorithm positively predict the difference between a brain with pain and a brain without pain is new ground.
"I had been convinced for many years that the very subjective nature of pain would preclude it from being able to characterize a pattern of brain activity that would extend across other individuals to discriminate pain or not pain," says Dr. Sean Makey, a senior author of the study. "I was really surprised to see that you could."
The researchers behind this study have already started another, similar study, and with a larger number of participants.
The technology seems to work in a controlled laboratory setting, but in real-world situations there are lots of complicating factors. For example, other types of pain in other parts of the body may register differently, and this study does not attempt to measure varying degrees of pain. And those suffering from chronic pain would not be able to provide a baseline pain-free brain scan for comparison.
"I'm hoping that we will see this technology as an objective biomarker of treatment responsiveness for clinical trials when testing a particular therapy or drug," says Makey. "This will augment the patient's recorded pain, and give us a more objective measure of how we're actually impacting their pain and their pain system."
In addition to converting pain from a subjective to an objective symptom, think of the enormous utility for patients who can't speak - infants, toddlers, the disabled.... So much suffering that could be eliminated or reduced. Doctors could determine who is responding and who isn't to various pain medications. Even if chronic pain patients can provide a pain-free scan it still might be useful in helping to reduce their pain levels.
Of course, popping someone into an MRI machine every couple of hours to monitor pain is a bit impractical. And also hideously expensive. But maybe this research will lead to a more portable/less expensive pain monitor.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Imagine having a pain meter attached to a pregnant woman.
Doctor: "Oh my god! The pain is over 9000!"
Nevertheless, looks interesting but years away from being practical.
ASVS('97)/SDN('03)
"Whilst human alchemists refer to the combustion triangle, some of their orcish counterparts see it as more of a hexagon: heat, fuel, air, laughter, screaming, fun." Dawn of the Dragons
If it were a two or above I wouldn't be able to answer because it would mean a pause in the screaming.
It's nice to see ACTUAL progress is being made on this.
In high school my friends and I tried to develop a pain measurement system measured in bitches (as in "that hurts like a bitch" vs "that hurts like 3.4 bitches") where 1 bitch was roughly equivalent to a firm punch in the arm, but the experiments tended to lose focus very quickly.
cosmicalstorm wrote:Would be interesting to see this technology extended to animals.
Hear hear! It'd make my job a hell of a lot easier, things are hard enough getting a good history from their owners. And there's lots of conditions, abdominal for example, where having a knowledge of pain level would help diagnosis.
Being a patient as well, I've always despised the 1-10 pain scale. My response to "where's your pain on a 1-10?" is usually "well for me it's a 9 today, but then again I've never been shot, stabbed, run over, or given birth before either."
"In the long run, however, there can be no excuse for any individual not knowing what it is possible for him to know. Why shouldn't he?" --Elliot Grosvenor, Voyage of the Space Beagle
