Robert C. Coghill, PhD
- Neuroscientist, Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology
- Director, Pediatric Pain Research Center
- Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
About
Biography
I am focused on delineating the neural mechanisms supporting individual differences in pain. My research interleaves data obtained with functional MRI of brain activity with subjective reports of pain and psychological state. My work encompasses studies of the effects of expectations on pain, brain mechanisms supporting attention to pain, and processes associated with the cognitive modulation of pain. I am also highly interested in understanding how the nervous system evaluates and constructs an experience of sensory components of pain, including perceived intensity and location. I also seek to develop of better tools for the measurement of multiple dimensions of the pain experience.
Together, these pain assessments, psychological profiles, and neuroimaging endpoints can be used in combination to develop strategies to better predict, diagnose, and treat pain. More importantly, this research will be critically important for advancing personalized medicine, with the long-term goal of identifying the best treatment for each individual child.
PhD: Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 1991.
Post-doctoral Fellowship: University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec.
Post-doctoral Fellowship: National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
Services and Specialties
Interests
Chronic pain; acute pain; brain imaging; sensory testing
Publications
Quantitative sensory testing in patients with migraine: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PAIN. 2018; 159:1202-1223.
Lateral inhibition during nociceptive processing. PAIN. 2017; 158:1046-1052.
Mindfulness-Meditation-Based Pain Relief Is Not Mediated by Endogenous Opioids. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2016; 36:3391-3397.
Brain mechanisms supporting the modulation of pain by mindfulness meditation. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2011; 31:5540-5548.
Attentional modulation of spatial integration of pain: evidence for dynamic spatial tuning. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2007; 27:11635-11640.
The subjective experience of pain: where expectations become reality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA. 2005; 102:12950-12955.
Neural correlates of interindividual differences in the subjective experience of pain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA. 2003; 100:8538-8542.
Transient analgesia evoked by noxious stimulus offset. Journal of Neurophysiology. 2002; 87:2205-2208.
Pain intensity processing within the human brain: a bilateral, distributed mechanism. Journal of Neurophysiology. 1999; 82:1934-1943.
Distributed processing of pain and vibration by the human brain. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 1994; 14:4095-4108.
From the Blog
Teaming Up to Solve a Headache About Headaches
Robert C. Coghill, PhD, Scott W. Powers, PhD, ABPP, FAHS ...7/3/2019
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