Researchers discover that brain changes that cause pain sensitivity impact older women more

Columbus [Ohio], February 3 (ANI): According to a new study, as we age, the brain mechanism that allows us to block painchanges. Also, gender differences in these changes may cause females to be more sensitive to mild pain than males when they are older.

Researchers used fMRI images to examine brain reactions in men and men”>women who rated the severity and unpleasantness of pain while being exposed to increasing quantities of heat.

The findings revealed that long-standing gender disparities in pain perception might be linked back to this brain network, and they provided additional evidence that those gender differences may become more pronounced as people age.

The study was published recently in The Journal of Pain. “The most novel part of this study is looking at gender by age,” said lead study author Michelle Failla, assistant professor in the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University. “Most of the work characterizing which regions in the brain respond to pain have been done in people aged 18 to 40.

We want to understand what’s happening between the ages of 30 and 90 years old because that’s when people are beginning to experience chronic pain.”

Plenty of previous research has shown that females are more sensitive to pain than males, but the brain regions and functions behind the gender differences in pain perception have mostly remained a mystery.

And in later adulthood, when risk for chronic pain is higher and our tolerance for pain drops, even less about the brain’s role in pain perception is known.