The “pain matrix” reloaded

Tormenting thoughts: The posterior cingulate sulcus of the default mode network regulates valence of thoughts and activity in the brain's pain network during music listening

“…Thus, the present data indicate that the posterior cingulate sulcus (area 23c) modulates activity in regions overlapping with the brain's putative pain network as a function of the valence of thoughts. (Note that this does not preclude that these regions are also involved in functions other than pain, including pleasure, that is, the exact opposite of pain; see also Iannetti, 2012, Wager et al, 2016, Salomons, Iannetti, Liang, & Wood, 2016. )…”

“…Thus, the present data indicate that the posterior cingulate sulcus (area 23c) modulates activity in regions overlapping with the brain's putative pain network as a function of the valence of thoughts. (Note that this does not preclude that these regions are also involved in functions other than pain, including pleasure, that is, the exact opposite of pain; see also Iannetti, 2012, Wager et al, 2016, Salomons, Iannetti, Liang, & Wood, 2016 Beyond the posterior cingulate sulcus, centrality of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), including medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC), was higher in our previous study during sad-than joyfulsounding music (Taruffi et al, 2017). In the present study this region was not observed in the direct contrast of positive versus negative music, but was detected in the valence-specific functional connectivity analysis which showed stronger connectivity of the posterior cingulate sulcus (area 23c) with the mOFC during negative than positive music.…”

“…A potential limitation of the present study is that no phenomenological experience of pain was measured. This is relevant because structures of the pain network are also involved in other phenomena (such as pleasure; see also Iannetti, 2012, Wager et al, 2016, Salomons et al, 2016) positive. Moreover, we cannot determine a causal influence of area 23c on putative “pain” regions, and thus our results leave open the possibility that regions linked to the pain network actually regulated area 23a (and not vice versa).…”