Physicians gauging pain have little to go on besides a patient’s self-report. And some sufferers simply can’t ___1___ how they’re feeling.

So scientists have searched for a reliable way to measure pain physiologically. And they may finally have one.

Researchers ___2___ functional MRI scans on the brains of 24 subjects who were having an arm heated to the point of moderate pain. The subjects’ brain patterns were recorded both as they experienced pain and zero pain. The researchers then used an algorithm to develop a pain model, based on the patterns. The work was published in the journal PLoS One.

The researchers then analyzed the brain scan patterns of 16 new subjects, some experiencing pain, some not. They found that their model accurately ___3___ pain levels 81 percent of the time.

Most studies of physiology-based measurements of pain have focused on heart rate, skin conductance and EEG. These measures ___4___ pain, but nothing has been accurate enough to ___5___ the self-reports.

The authors note we can’t depend solely on a study done with heat-based pain—but the method shows hope for new ways to accurately measure pain.
【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽出品】
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醫(yī)生們需要靠病人自述病痛來診斷病情，而部分病人往往難以將自己的痛楚表述出來。 為此，科學(xué)家們試圖尋找一個可以可靠測量痛楚的生理學(xué)方法，說不定還真被他們找到了。 科學(xué)家們讓24位實驗者單臂感受致中等疼痛的溫度，同時對他們的腦部進行核磁共振掃描。實驗者感到疼痛和未感到疼痛時的腦部圖像都被記錄下來?？茖W(xué)家們據(jù)此建立了一個疼痛數(shù)據(jù)模型。這項研究刊登在《公共科學(xué)圖書館—綜合》上。 科學(xué)家繼而分析了另外16名實驗者的腦部掃描圖，一部分感到痛楚，一部分沒有。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)這個模型81%的時間能夠精確測算疼痛程度。 以生理學(xué)為基礎(chǔ)測量痛楚的研究大多關(guān)注心率，皮膚傳導(dǎo)以及腦電圖。這些和痛楚有關(guān)系，但對疼痛者自述痛楚來說還不夠精確。 研究人員提醒我們，不能僅僅依靠這項熱疼痛研究——不過通過這個方法能讓我們離確切了解疼痛更進一步~