The investigators will examine mental/cognitive as well as cognitive functions (executive functions, attention functions, processing speed, learning and memory) in 200 patients with chronic pain and 36 healthy controls. Mental fatigue will be measured with questionnaires and cognitive fatigue and cognitive functions with neuropsychological tests. As studies on patients with mild traumatic brain injury has shown that fatigue is associated with altered communication (connectivity) in the brain's attention-related networks, brain connectivity will be measure in 24 patients (women only) and 22 healthy female controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. During the fMRI examination, participants will also perform a 20-minute vigilance task in a scanner. Studies have also shown that inflammatory biomarkers may be related to chronic pain, but inflammatory biomarkers has not been studied in relation to objective measures regarding cognition, fatigue and connectivity changes. Therefore, the patients and controls performing fMRI will also be examined with immunological biomarkers. In addition to this, a further 14 patients and 14 controls carrying out the neuropsychological testing alone will also be examined for immunological biomarkers. The main objectives are: 1. Do patients with chronic pain show more pronounced self-rated mental fatigue and cognitive fatigue compared to healthy controls and are fatigue measures related to cognitive functions such as process speed and attention functions? 2. What is the relationship between cognitive impairments, mental fatigue, or fatigability and 1. the duration of pain 2. generalization of pain and are they affected by covariates, such as sleep disorders and degree of depression/anxiety? 3. Is there an association between immunological biomarkers and cognitive functions/mental fatigue/cognitive fatigability? 4. Does the connectivity in the brain of patients with chronic pain differ from healthy controls at rest as well as during activity while performing a vigilance task? 5. Is there an association between connectivity in the brain and 1. immunological biomarkers 2. fatigability and 3. results on neuropsychological tests?
Age range
18 Years – 50 Years
Sex
ALL
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Fatigability from WAIS-III - Coding
Timeframe: baseline
D-KEFS - Color Word Test
Timeframe: baseline
Fatigability on e-prime vigilance (reaction time) task in the fMRI scanner
Timeframe: baseline
Task-fMRI
Timeframe: baseline
Resting state fMRI
Timeframe: baseline
Inflammatory markers
Timeframe: Baseline