Robert C. Coghill, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Virginia Commonwealth University (1991)

The capacity to monitor the integrity of our bodies and to be made immediately aware of injury through the experience of pain is critical for our survival. However, the central nervous system mechanisms that translate information about tissue damage into the conscious experience of pain remain poorly understood. Thus, the central objective of my research is to better characterize fundamental aspects of pain processing mechanisms of the brain. Most studies within my laboratory employ both psychophysical and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques to explore the relationship between regional brain activation and discrete aspects of the pain experience.

Selected Publications:

Coghill, R.C., Talbot, J.D., Meyer, E., Gjedde, A., Evans, A.C., Bushnell, M.C., and Duncan, G.H. Distributed processing of pain and vibration in the human brain. J. Neurosci. 14:4095-4108, 1994.

Coghill, R.C. Brain Mechanisms Supporting the Pain Experience: A Distributed Processing System. In: Pain 1999 - An Updated Review, edited by M. Max. Seattle: IASP Press, 1999,

Coghill, R.C., Sang, C.N., Maisog, J.Ma., and Iadarola, M.J. Pain intensity processing within the human brain: A bilateral, distributed mechanism. J. Neurophysiol. 82:1934-1943, 1999.

Coghill, R.C., Gilron, I., and Iadarola, M.J. Hemispheric lateralization of somatosensory processing. J. Neurophysiol. 85:2602-2612, 2001.

Grill, J.D., and Coghill, R.C. Transient analgesia evoked by noxious stimulus offset. J. Neurophysiol. 87:2205-2208, 2002.

E-mail: rcoghill@wfubmc.edu

View Dr. Coghill's extended web site