UTFacultiesEEMCSDisciplines & departmentsBSS2021Principal InvestigatorsJan R. Buitenweg: Nociceptive and Somatosensory Processing

Jan R. Buitenweg: Nociceptive and Somatosensory Processing

Contrary to acute pain, the causes and maintaining factors of chronic pain are poorly understood. Once acute pain has become chronic, in only one out of four patients therapy results in a pain reduction of more than 50%.

Clinical research indicates that maladaptive mechanisms in the brain and spinal cord contribute to persistence of many chronic pain syndroms. However, these central mechanisms cannot be observed and modulated sufficiently for successful and reliable clinical diagnosis, prevention or treatment of chronic pain.

The major objective of this principal investigator track is the development of psychophysical and neurophysiological techniques enabling clinical assessment and treatment of chronic pain syndroms.

Present projects focus on two general challenges of the chronic pain problem:

1.Development of methods for controlled stimulation and recording of activity in pain related neural pathways, revealing or inducing functional changes of nociceptive subsystems.

2.Development of mathematical models for explaining and predicting experimental and clinical results, based on principles of neurostimulation, neurocomputational methods

Staff

Publications

Publications by Jan Buitenweg (EEMCS)