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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Pain. 2010 Dec 13;152(3 Suppl):S49–S64. doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2010.11.010

Figure 9.

Figure 9

Distinct functional connectivity between nucleus accumbens and the rest of the brain are observed in chronic pain patients in contrast to healthy subjects. This shift in connectivity is tightly correlated to the magnitude of back pain reported by the patients. A. Healthy: Functional connectivity between nucleus accumbens and the rest of the brain in healthy subjects. We observe extensive bilateral insula involvement. A. CBP: Functional connectivity for nucleus accumbens in chronic back pain patients. Functional connectivity is shifted away from the insula to medial prefrontal cortex. B. Strength of connectivity between nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex in relation to the magnitude of back pain reported. Each red symbol is an individual chronic back pain patient; blue circles are healthy controls. The higher the magnitude of spontaneous pain of back pain the stronger is the correlation between mPFC and NAc, implying more information sharing between these two brain regions. Figure adapted from [12].