“ an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.”
IASP revised definition of pain
How can we best measure pain associated with movement?
An area of research interest is how to accurately measure the pain associated with osteoarthritis that typically causes joint loading related pain. This project combines motion capture and biomechanical modelling to understand altered movement during pain as well as how pain reports relate to these movements.
Can we design non-invasive neuromodulation protocols to relieve pain?
Projects on this topic examine how non-invasive neuromodulation techniques (transcranial direct current stimulation, 4X1 transcranial direct current stimulation, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial alternating current stimulation) modulate different experimental pain thresholds using quantitative sensory testing techniques. Different electrode montages, stimulation magnitudes are studied, combined with electric field modelling. More complex psychophysical protocols are also used with a particular interest in the fascinating phenomenon of offset analgesia - the experience of a large transient drop in experienced pain after the removal of a slightly supra-threshold pain stimulus.
Ten things to know about ..... pain
RTE 2 2015
Acknowledgement: the image is a composite of images courtesy of:
Chiara Salvi (X-ray of a knee joint printed on coated aluminium)
St Bartholomew's hospital archives and museum (Knee joint from a case of suppurating osteoarthritis)
Wellcome Collection (Pain chart)
Henrietta Howells (Healthy adult human brain, viewed from the side, tractography)