{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T01:24:44Z","timestamp":1760059484299,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":61,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,17]],"date-time":"2025-06-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1750118400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Brain Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Acute visceral pain is among the most common symptoms of patients seeking in-hospital treatment and is related to various thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic diseases. It is characterized by distinguishable sensory qualities and can be described on a sensory-discriminative and affective-motivational level. These sensory qualities correlate with the activation of cerebral areas involved in the neuronal processing of visceral pain and can be visualized using functional neuroimaging. Methods: An ALE (activation likelihood estimation) meta-analysis of a total of 21 studies investigating different balloon distention paradigms during either PET or fMRI was performed to demonstrate the neuroanatomical correlates of visceral pain. The ALE meta-analysis was performed using the GingerAle software version 3.0.2 and was displayed with the Mango software 4.1 on an anatomical MNI template. Results: Summarizing studies investigating the functional neuroanatomy of visceral pain, bihemispheric activation of the insula, the thalamus, and clusters involving the right inferior parietal lobe\/postcentral gyrus as well as the left postcentral gyrus\/parietal inferior lobe were observed. Conclusions: This ALE meta-analysis substantiates the concept of two distinguishable neuroanatomical pathways of visceral pain which are related to either the sensory-discriminative or the affective-motivational dimension of pain processing.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/brainsci15060651","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,17]],"date-time":"2025-06-17T07:04:52Z","timestamp":1750143892000},"page":"651","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Neuroanatomical Correlates of Visceral Pain: An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-2459-5758","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Christoph","family":"M\u00fcller","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Lahn-Dill-Kliniken, 35578 Wetzlar, Germany"},{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, University of Marburg, 35037 Marburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hagen","family":"Maxeiner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy, Lahn-Dill-Kliniken, 35578 Wetzlar, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"261","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-physiol-020518-114525","article-title":"Visceral pain","volume":"81","author":"Grundy","year":"2019","journal-title":"Annu. 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