NOCIONS

Pain Research Lab (NOCIONS)

NOCIONS, the Pain Research Lab, explores the physiology and pathophysiology of pain in humans. Using behavioral methods (psychophysics, cognitive neuropsychology), functional neuroimaging techniques (scalp and intracerebral EEG) and non-invasive neuromodulation techniques (transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcutaneous direct current stimulation), combined with novel techniques to selectively activate specific classes of nociceptive afferents (radiant & contact heat stimulation, mechanical pinprick stimulation, electrical stimulation), researchers at NOCIONS aim to better understand the neural processes underlying the perception of pain and its modulation, the plastic changes in the pain pathways that occur after inflammation, injury or sustained nociceptive stimulation, and their involvement in the development of chronic pain. Progress in understanding the neural representation of pain is not only important for basic neuroscience research, it is also critical to develop effective strategies for the diagnosis and management of pathological pain conditions such as chronic neuropathic pain and persistent post-operative pain. In addition, NOCIONS studies the cognitive mechanisms modulating the link between nociception and psychological factors such as attention, expectation, executive functions, placebo/nocebo, multisensory interaction & body representation, and hypnosis. Several projects are conducted in collaboration with the reference center for chronic pain headed by Anne Berquin and the transitional post-operative pain clinic headed by Patricia Lavand’homme at the Saint-Luc University Hospital to study the pathophysiology of complex regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia and post-operative chronic pain.

NOCIONS currently hosts three post-doctoral fellows, and fifteen PhD students, including medical doctors, psychologists, physiotherapists and biomedical scientists. The team was and is currently involved in several EU projects aiming at developing biomarkers of nociception that could be used for the pharmacological development of novel analgesics (IMI2 PainCare project; http://imi-pain-care.eu) and to predict response to treatment (QSPainRelief; https://qspainrelief.eu). Nocions also studies aiming at understanding the involvement of central sensitization in the development of persistent post-operative pain, at exploring cold perception in humans, and understanding how cognitive factors may modulate central sensitization in humans.