1Chapter 4 What Can Neuroimaging Tell Us about Central Pain?

Central pain (CP) is dened by the International Association for the Study of Pain as “pain initiated or caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction of the CNS [central nervous system]” (Merskey and Bogduk 1994). A more recently proposed denition is “pain arising as a direct consequence of a lesion or disease affecting the central somatosensory system” (Treede et al. 2008). This newer renement recognizes that an essential feature associated with CP is disturbance of part of the central somatosensory system. This may be the only universal feature that applies to CP conditions, which exhibit varied qualities across patients.