In neurobiology, learning refers to changed responses to the same stimulus, whereas the retention of these changes is memory. These terms encompass a variety of neuronal and behavioral processes, including chronic pain. Chronic pain persists after an injury has healed and results from significant functional and structural changes in the nervous system similar to memory processes. As a result, chronic pain has been proposed to be “a persistence of the memory of pain and/or the inability to extinguish the memory of pain evoked by an initial inciting injury”(Apkarian et al., 2009).

Where and how is this nociceptive memory stored? This is a complicated question covering multiple levels of the pain pathway, from peripheral nociceptors to the cerebral cortex. It is generally agreed that the cerebral cortex plays a significant role in pain perception and modulation. Researchers have identified the “pain matrix,” a group of brain regions consistently activated by acute pain. The primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory cortices belong to the lateral pain pathway, which is involved in the sensory