Grant: DRA : Canada Graduate Research Scholarship - Doctoral Program (CGRS D)

Chronic pain is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, affecting millions of people and placing a heavy burden on health care systems. It is more than just a physical sensation also affecting emotions, thinking, and behavior, reflecting complex changes in how the brain processes and regulates pain. Previous research has shown that chronic pain is linked to differences in brain structure, but most studies are small, focus on a single pain condition, limit the features they examine and/or focus on one specific region of the brain. This makes it difficult to understand the broader and shared effects of chronic pain on the brain. In this project, I will combine brain imaging data from many studies around the world to create the largest and most comprehensive analysis of structural brain changes in chronic pain to date. Beyond traditional measures of brain volume and thickness, I will also use innovative new metrics of brain shape that have never been examined at this scale. Using advanced approaches such as "normative modeling" and comparisons with measures like "brain age," I will move beyond group averages to better understand how individual brains are affected. This will allow us to identify both common patterns across pain conditions and unique differences between them. Importantly, I will also examine whether these changes differ between men and women, helping ensure the findings are relevant across sexes. Ultimately, the goal is to improve how we detect, monitor, and treat chronic pain by developing tools that can capture the biological changes underlying people with chronic pain experiences. In the long term, this research may help guide more personalized approaches to care, improve diagnosis, and reduce the enormous personal and societal costs of chronic pain.