查看文章

Altered brain structure and function is evident in adults with multisite chronic pain. Although many such adults trace their pain back to childhood, it has been difficult to disentangle whether central nervous system alterations precede or are consequences of chronic pain. If the former is true, aberrant brain activity may identify children vulnerable to developing chronic pain later in life. We examined structural and functional brain magnetic resonance imaging metrics in a subset of children from the first 2 assessments of the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study. Children (aged 9-10) who were pain free at baseline and then developed multisite pain 1 year later (n 5 115) were matched to control children who were pain free at both timepoints (n 5 230). We analyzed brain structure (cortical thickness and gray matter volume) and function (spontaneous neural activity and functional connectivity). Results were …