Study Provides New Insights Into Changes in Brain Function in Fibromyalgia

Woman holding her neck. Fibromyalgia Research Spotlight

Pain at the time of testing, rather than the presence of a chronic pain condition, is primarily responsible for changes in the functioning of the brain’s default mode network in patients with fibromyalgia, according to the results of a study recently published in the journal NeuroImage. The study, conducted at the National Institutes of Health and McGill University, was partly funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health’s intramural research program.

Some aspects of brain function in patients with chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia (a disorder that involves widespread pain, tenderness, fatigue, and other symptoms) differ from those in healthy people. One part of the brain that’s affected is the default mode network, which includes different brain regions that are highly connected to each other at specific times. This network is active when a person is at rest (awake but not engaged in an attention-demanding or goal-oriented task). It becomes inactive when the person starts to perform a task.