Back pain relief linked to anatomical changes in brain

When you're in constant pain, it can be hard to think of anything else. The pain clouds your thoughts like a fog, wearing away at your patience and your attention. New research, however, suggests that when relief does finally come, your brain can recover all the way down to a cellular level. A report in the May 18 Journal of Neuroscience finds that relieving chronic lower back pain correlates with a return to normal brain function. Fourteen patients performed a cognitive task before and after one of two treatments, either spinal surgery or an injection of anesthesia between spinal joints. The cognitive task, which tested patients' ability to focus, involved picking out which of three numbers or letters didn't belong in a group. Among those who felt pain relief after treatment, neural activity during the task improved to healthy levels in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a brain region associated with attention. More striking, the cortex had actually become thicker, attaining a thickness similar to that of healthy individuals....read more>>>....