Central pathophysiology of dementia and pain

The experience of pain is a function of the brain. Dementia occurs as a result of brain dysfunction, which has the potential to interact with pain processing. It is feasible to make inferences about the likely impact of dementia on pain processing by comparing the functional neuroanatomy of pain with the regional expression of pathology in those diseases that cause cognitive impairment, and other chapters touch on these issues. The primary objective of this chapter is to review the literature of neuroimaging as it relates to pain and dementia. The first part of this chapter will focus on studies involving neuroimaging techniques that have a bearing on interactions between dementia and regional brain responses associated with pain. The second part of the chapter will discuss the possibility that neuroimaging techniques could be used to identify pain in non-verbal people with dementia.