Future of Neuroimaging as Pain Scanners in Marker Development of Pain

In clinical practice, pain is asked by the physician to be narrated with some specificity but is found that quite often the patient's narration of pain is very vague. There is no pain thermometer to gauge the intensity of pain. This makes it interesting to research if imaging can help in seeking quantifiable pain markers. The preclinical and clinical trials on pain have both ethical and medical considerations and are not easy to quantify. Imaging modalities like fMRI or PET, along with machine learning techniques, may play an important role in defining the changes in the brain according to the intensity of pain. It is also of significance to find if there are changes in pain perception in an individual as per neuroleptic modulation with the ageing brain. The markers for pain should be reproducible and measurable and consistent to subjective self-report of the patient.