Zempsky WT, et al. - Individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) and non-SCD controls were exposed to a painful stimuli of varying intensity using a pressure algometer and underwent several neuroimaging tasks to assess whether altered functional connectivity in sickle cell disease exists at rest and during acute pain challenge. Findings supported both increased and decreased connectivity which was consistent with findings in other chronic pain disorders. Researchers gained preliminary evidence suggesting that subcortical brain regions might contribute to neurodevelopmental abnormalities in chronic pain. Results here support a model in which SCD pain sensitization involved abnormally low functional integration of brain regions that made use of nociceptive information to plan movements, and hyperconnectivity of various frontal and parietal lobe regions that direct attention to or represent higher-order abstractions within circuits involved with either nocioceptive processing or detection of abnormally salient environmental stimuli.