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Can brain waves predict chronic pain?
By Wendy Haaf
With support from a new fellowship program, postdoctoral scholar Joshua Hoddinott, PhD, investigates whether EEG patterns could identify patients at risk
By Wendy Haaf
Joshua Hoddinott, PhD, jokes that he’s been immersed in a world of pain for the past several months. But he couldn’t be happier about it.
Not because he takes pain lightly – far from it. “Chronic pain affects 20 per cent of people worldwide, but is surprisingly understudied,” he said.
His excitement stems from the opportunity to continue the kind of research he loves, while steering his already unconventional career path in an entirely new direction.
Support from the new Schulich Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is enabling Hoddinott to apply the neuroimaging expertise he acquired while studying the interplay between brain function, rhythm and music perception to a new challenge: better understanding pain.
Hoddinott completed his doctoral degree under the supervision of Jessica Grahn, PhD, professor in psychology at Western. Now working with David Seminowicz, PhD, professor in medical biophysics, he hopes to use EEG patterns to identify patients who may be at higher risk of developing persistent pain – for instance, after surgery – and explore ways of intervening before that occurs.
Hoddinott, who is among the fellowship program’s inaugural cohort, already had such a project in mind when he approached Seminowicz.
“This was the perfect opportunity to apply similar imaging methods to questions with direct clinical relevance,” he said.
The son of two grade-school teachers, Hoddinott grew up in Newfoundland and originally came to Western to pursue his dual interests in psychology and music (he plays bass and guitar and is part of a lab band that performs at social events).
He says pursuing postdoctoral training felt like a natural next step. “I just fell in love with research, and the more I did with my PhD, the more I wanted to do,” he said.
Once Hodinott had completed his degree, he found himself increasingly drawn to research with the potential to improve the lives of larger patient populations.
The fellowship’s donor-matched funding on top of existing support also means Hoddinott can focus more intensively on research. “It’s a real game-changer for me,” he said.
Just a few months into his new role, Hoddinott has already reported on promising findings. At Western's annual kNOw-PAIN conference in March, he presented results from a study using pre-existing data from healthy individuals who experienced a brief, harmless episode of pain triggered by a laser pulse. EEG recordings captured participants’ brains before, during, and after the stimulus.
“The study looked at two or three correlates we know are related to pain, to see whether the interaction between them could explain what happens before pain, during pain, and recovery from it,” Hoddinott explained.
Among the most striking findings was that participants whose EEGs showed a specific combination of brain wave patterns prior to the moment of pain were more likely to report lower pain levels.
“This suggests there may be a pain-resistant brain state,” Hoddinott said.
The next phase of research will examine whether using non-invasive approaches that modulate brain activity (transcranial magnetic stimulation, for example) to target certain brain oscillations can influence pain perception.
Seminowicz says postdoctoral scholars play a critical role in sustaining research environments.
“In addition to already having the skills to do research independently and understanding what we expect in terms of publications and presentations, they often take master’s students and undergrads under their wings and provide mentorship to them,” he said. “My lab wouldn’t run without postdocs."
“Not only is it exciting to see this level of investment in postdoctoral scholars given their crucial role, it’s also exciting to see the importance of pain research being acknowledged by donors and the School,” Seminowicz added.