Hazel Huang L&S Biological Sciences
Identifying Affective Pain Biomarker for Personalized Neuromodulation
Chronic pain co-occurs with emotional distress, indicating an affective component of pain aside of the physical sensation. While prior work has identified brain regions such as the anterior cingulate cortex and insula as key contributors to affective pain, current neuromodulation treatments are limited by an unclear neurophysiological mechanism underlying affective pain.
This project aims to identify spatiotemporally precise neural signals of affective pain using intracranial EEG recordings from seven patients with chronic pain. Applying machine learning on power spectral density features of collected signals at different regions of interest, I could retrieve high-resolution frequency and spatial information related to affective pain. In addition, I will conduct functional connectivity analyses to examine network-level mechanism of the identified neural biomarkers. Ultimately, the project hopes to contribute to the understanding of affective pain in terms of behavioral assays, spatialtemporal features, and system-level representation. It therefore assists development of personalized neuromodulation strategies that more effectively target the emotional dimension of chronic pain.
Message To Sponsor
Thank you for supporting my research this summer! I am especially interested in understanding how neural activity patterns relate to affective symptoms such as chronic pain and depression, and how these signals can be used to develop more personalized treatments. I am grateful for the opportunity to pursue this work and contribute to advancing neuroscience and addressing clinical questions with your support!