FIGURE 2.

Cortical processing of chronic pain in chronic back pain (CBP). (a) The upper row shows the cortical encoding of the endogenous pain intensity (amplitude—AMP): the activities in the bilateral anterior insular cortex (AIC), the pons, and the frontal cortex were positively related to pain intensity. We found negative relationships between brain activity and pain intensity in the precuneus and the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC). (b) The processing of changes of pain intensity (slope—SLP) was mainly localised in the bilateral AIC. (c) The movement process, which prerequisites motor activity and decision‐making (absolute slope—aSLP), shows a vast network of activity in the thalamus, the cingulate cortex, the entire insula and the cerebellum. The graphs on the right show the temporal dynamics of the haemodynamic delay for several regions in relation to the current pain rating (at time point 0 s)