Professor Karen Davis
Editor in Chief of PAIN, IASP; Krembil Brain Institute, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Canada
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Karen Davis is the Canada Research Chair in Acute and Chronic Pain Research. She is a senior scientist and division head at the Krembil Brain Institute of the University Health Network and a professor at the University of Toronto. She obtained her PhD in Physiology at the University of Toronto and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Davis has pioneered electrophysiological and MRI- and magnetoencephalography-based brain imaging approaches to investigate mechanisms underlying pain, delineate brain plasticity associated with chronic pain, and individual factors that contribute to pain sensitivity and chronic pain treatment outcomes. She has 200+ publications, 25,000+ citations and an H-index of 84. Her concept of a “dynamic pain connectome” is being used to identify neuromarkers for personalized approaches to pain management. Dr. Davis is also active in neuroethics. She was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and the Royal Society of Canada, received mentorship awards, and served as President of the Canadian Pain Society. In January of 2023, Dr. Davis became Editor-in-Chief of PAIN.
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Using Functional Neuroimaging and Psychophysics to Understand Pain and Predict Treatment Outcomes
This talk will provide an overview of the approaches and data that has emerged from my lab that demonstrates the utility of using functional neuroimaging (fMRI, MEG) and psychophysics to understand individual factors and brain networks that underlie pain and potential use of predictive markers of chronic pain treatment response.
Can Peak Alpha Frequency Serve as a Biomarker of Chronic Neuropathic Pain?
This talk will provide an overview of the recent evidence from MEG studies in my lab that demonstrate abnormal neural oscillations within the dynamic pain connectome in people with chronic pain. I will also show how these abnormalities are most prominent in the alpha band and in people with neuropathic pain compared to non-neuropathic pain, and show some sex specificity. The findings support the emerging concept from some labs that the peak alpha frequency (PAF) may be a biomarker of chronic neuropathic pain.
