Neural Noise

fNIRS pain classification and virtual reality in cancer pain management

2 min read

  • Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can be used for pain classification in clinical settings.1
  • Virtual reality effects on pain have been assessed in cancer pain management alongside fNIRS.1
  • fNIRS has biomarker potential for pain and for studying VR–neuro coupling.1 1

Weekly enrichment (2026-07-20)

  • The study (Scientific Reports, 2025; DOI 10.1038/s41598-025-93678-y; led by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center with the University of Guelph) used resting-state fNIRS plus a multinomial logistic regression (MLR) model to classify cancer pain severity.2 3
  • Participants fell into three groups: healthy individuals recorded without VR (Group A), cancer patients recorded before and after an “Oceania” VR relaxation program (Group B), and cancer patients recorded without VR (Group C), all wearing a wireless fNIRS headcap.2 4
  • Pain was self-reported on the FACES Pain Scale-Revised and binned into no/mild (0-4), moderate (5-7) and severe (8-10) classes.2 4
  • Using fNIRS functional-connectivity features with recursive feature elimination and leave-one-participant-out validation, the MLR model classified pain severity with 74% accuracy.2 4
  • The VR relaxation intervention significantly reduced pain intensity (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, P < 0.001) and produced significant changes in brain functional-connectivity patterns (P < 0.05).2 4
  • 75.61% of cancer patients experienced pain reductions exceeding the clinically relevant 30% threshold after VR, and imaging suggested VR affects both cognitive and emotional aspects of pain.2 3
  • The authors frame fNIRS as an objective, non-invasive pain biomarker and VR as a non-pharmacological, opioid-sparing option that may modulate pain-related neural circuits.3 4
  • The work is tied to an ongoing clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06456411) developing objective fNIRS pain-assessment algorithms and testing VR for sustained pain and medication reduction over up to 16 months.5

Footnotes

  1. https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiX0FVX3lxTE41c1RyekFjZWRGZHBrNWxuYzFPOWhJbTc0dXZRZnNjOU1wQ1FPX25sMnBQdXpOUjBrSVE0UGw1UUFKakZyQXZlX2RUSVk0cmpGX3JHMTJ0SlRtNjdqTjlB?oc=5 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-93678-y ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. https://www.onclive.com/view/brain-imaging-plus-virtual-reality-shows-promise-for-effectively-managing-cancer-pain ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. https://www.renalandurologynews.com/news/functional-near-infrared-spectroscopy-plus-virtual-reality-help-manage-cancer-related-pain/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06456411 ↩

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