Characterizing cerebral contributions to individual variability in pain processing is crucial for personalized pain medicine, but has yet to be done. In the present study, we address this problem by identifying brain regions with high versus low interindividual variability in their relationship with pain. We trained idiographic pain-predictive models with 13 single-trial functional MRI datasets (n = 404, discovery set) and quantified voxel-level importance for individualized pain prediction. With 21 regions identified as important pain predictors, we examined the interindividual variability of local pain-predictive weights in these regions. Higher-order transmodal regions, such as ventromedial and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices, showed larger individual variability, whereas unimodal regions, such as somatomotor cortices, showed more stable pain representations across individuals. We replicated this result in an independent dataset (n = 124). Overall, our study identifies cerebral sources of individual differences in pain processing, providing potential targets for personalized assessment and treatment of pain.

表征大脑对疼痛处理个体差异的影响对于个性化疼痛医学至关重要，但尚未完成。在本研究中，我们通过识别与疼痛的关系具有高个体间变异性和低个体间变异性的大脑区域来解决这个问题。我们使用 13 个单次试验功能 MRI 数据集（ n = 404，发现集）训练了具体的疼痛预测模型，并量化了个体化疼痛预测的体素级重要性。我们将 21 个区域确定为重要的疼痛预测因子，研究了这些区域局部疼痛预测权重的个体差异。高阶跨模态区域，例如腹内侧和腹外侧前额叶皮层，表现出较大的个体差异，而单模态区域，例如躯体运动皮层，在个体之间表现出更稳定的疼痛表征。我们在一个独立的数据集中复制了这个结果（ n = 124）。总的来说，我们的研究确定了疼痛处理个体差异的大脑来源，为疼痛的个性化评估和治疗提供了潜在的目标。