Mapping central post-stroke pain and somatic complaints in patients with brain lesions

Our health and well-being are intimately dependent on how our brain represents and interprets signals from the body. However, how the brain encodes bodily information and attributes positive or negative qualities to those perceptions remains incompletely understood, particularly from a neuroanatomical perspective. It is well known that lesions in certain brain regions are associated with a more negative perception of the body—manifesting as intractable pain without a nociceptive trigger—referred to as central post-lesion pain or central pain syndrome (CPSP). Other lesions may have more subtle effects on bodily interpretation, such as increasing or decreasing the likelihood of somatic complaints.In this study, we evaluated the relationship between lesion location and subjects’ evaluations of body states, ranging from pain to somatic complaints. The overall objective was to determine whether lesion location is associated with differences in the experience of pain and somatic complaints in individuals with acquired brain lesions. Additionally, we explored the relationship between somatic complaints and outcomes such as cognition and mood—an ongoing area of research. Specifically, we examined whether somatic complaints are associated with negative cognitive outcomes and mood disturbances.