Figure 2
Higher-level covariate analysis between pain intensity for palpating joints (mean rating of pain during scan) and brain activity across all 10 scans results in two main clusters: left insular cortex (red) R2 = 0.78 and right secondary somatosensory area (blue) R2 = 0.77. Middle panels show the average change in BOLD signal during stimulation (mean stimulus duration = 13.3 seconds) for these areas prior to, and 1 and 3 hours after the administration of COX-2i. Right panels show the relationship between activity (Z score) and pain for a 1 cc volume centered at the peak of the covariate analysis, for each region.