Pain chronicity, severity, and widespreadness are related to increased rsfMRI-based Brain Entropy in the Prefrontal cortex

Motivation: Chronic pain (CP) represents a severe public health issue and a high socioeconomic burden. The complex nature of CP has made the identification of neuroimaging-based biomarkers extremely challenging Goal(s): Investigating different dimensions of CP by using brain entropy (BEN) to characterize the randomness and irregularity of brain activity Approach: Using resting-state fMRI data to estimate BEN for over 10,000 participants, and test the association between BEN and pain chronicity, severity, widespreadness, and duration Results: Pain chronicity, severity and widespreadness are correlated to increased BEN in the bilateral prefrontal cortex. No association between BEN and pain duration was observed Impact: Brain Entropy, as a measure of the randomness and irregularity of brain activity, may represent a neuroimaging-based biomarker for chronic pain. Brain Entropy is modifiable through non-invasive brain stimulation, aiding its potential translational value in the treatment of chronic pain