Abstract #5645

The subjective intensity of pain in healthy subjects is inversely correlate with posterior insular GABA levels

Margot Thiaucourt¹, Polina Shabes², Natalie Schloss³, Markus Sack¹, Ulf Baumgaertner², Christian Schmahl³, and Gabriele Ende¹

¹Neuroimaging, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany, ²Center for Biomedicine and Medical Technology Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany, ³Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany

We present single voxel MEGA-PRESS MRS data from the posterior insula of 20 healthy women demonstrating a significant association of GABA and the subjective pain thresholds. These findings are in good agreement with the postulated role of the posterior insula for pain information processing. In this region pain is first processed and the sensory aspects of pain perception is elaborated and then conveyed to the anterior insula where it is related to emotional and cognitive aspects of pain perception. The data corroborate that GABA levels seem to be an important mediator for pain perception.

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