Working memory performance is correlated with local brain morphology in the medial frontal cortex in chronic pain patients. Structural correlates of pain-cognition interaction

We had recently investigated patients suffering from fibromyalgia (FM) and healthy controls using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). VBM revealed a conspicuous pattern of altered brain morphology in several brain regions, including the cerebellum, the striatum and the frontal cortex. In addition patients, but not healthy controls, had been extensively tested for neuropsychological deficits. Neuropsychological performances were assessed in comparison to normative data. In relation to their corresponding age and education groups FM patients showed reduced performances in most of the cognitive tasks. However, the most…