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Research projects 2001 - Pain research

Central nervous system processing of human gut sensation

A collaboration between Dr Qasim Aziz of Hope Hospital, Salford and Dr Paul Furlong of Aston University is using functional brain imaging techniques to identify areas of the brain that are activated by stimulation of the gut.

Functional gut disorders (FGD) such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and Non-Cardiac Chest Pain (NCCP), (ie not related to the heart) are common, affecting between 10 and 20 % of the UK population. The most common symptom is pain. A stimulus in the gut which would usually be non-painful is perceived as painful by a FGD patient. This is known as visceral hypersensitivity and may be due to either hypersensitive nerves within the gut or abnormal processing of gut sensory information by the brain. For example, it has long been recognised that stress, depression and anxiety affect gut function.

Despite strong evidence linking hypersensitive gut nerves and abnormal brain processing with symptoms of pain in FGD, there have, until recently, been no techniques available to objectively investigate this in people. Hence the management of these disorders remains unsatisfactory. Experiments in this field have been conducted on opossums, rats and primates, and the results are inevitably flawed by species differences. The LDF project examines the right species D humans.

When nerves in the brain are activated in response to an external stimulus they generate electromagnetic fields. The electrical field component can be recorded by a technique called Cortical Evoked Potentials (CEP), and the magnetic component recorded by Magnetoencephalography (MEG). Drs Aziz and Furlong have used these brain imaging techniques to identify which areas of the brain are activated following both painful and non-painful stimulation of the gut in healthy people. With Lord Dowding Fund support, their research aims to develop a technique to study patients with FGD and provide greater understanding of gastrointestinal disorders and associated pain.

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