Irina Strigo, PhD
Professor
Psychiatry
School of Medicine

Our group investigates brain networks that process pain and emotion in individuals with depressive, anxiety disorders, chronic pain and traumatic brain injury. In addition we seek to understand how individual differences in pain response relate to pain chronification. This research has been funded by the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), National Institute of Health (NIH),the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Painless Research Foundation.

• Unsupervised learning for prognostic validity in patients with chronic pain in transdisciplinary pain care.
  Scientific reports 2023 Strigo IA, Simmons AN, Giebler J, Schilling JM, Moeller-Bertram T
• Pain-related opioidergic and dopaminergic neurotransmission: Dual meta-Analyses of PET radioligand studies.
  Brain research 2023 Garcia Guerra S, Spadoni A, Mitchell J, Strigo IA
• Editorial: Understanding emotions using brain imaging and stimulation techniques.
  Frontiers in human neuroscience 2023 Simmons AN, Strigo IA
• AI-based dimensional neuroimaging system for characterizing heterogeneity in brain structure and function in major depressive disorder: COORDINATE-MDD consortium design and rationale.
  BMC psychiatry 2023 Fu CHY, Erus G, Fan Y, Antoniades M, Arnone D, Arnott SR, Chen T, Choi KS, Fatt CC, Frey BN, Frokjaer VG, Ganz M, Garcia J, Godlewska BR, Hassel S, Ho K, McIntosh AM, Qin K, Rotzinger S, Sacchet MD, …
• Distal neuropathic pain in HIV is associated with functional connectivity patterns in default mode and salience networks.
  Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) 2022 Hays Weeks CC, Simmons AN, Strigo IA, Timtim S, Ellis RJ, Keltner JR
• HIV peripheral neuropathy-related degeneration of white matter tracts to sensorimotor cortex.
  Journal of neurovirology 2022 Timtim SH, Simmons AN, Hays C, Strigo I, Sorg S, Ellis R, Keltner JR
• Learning from addiction: Craving of prescription opioids in chronic pain sufferers.
  Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews 2022 Strigo IA, Murphy E, Mitchell JM, Spadoni AD
• Toward Composite Pain Biomarkers of Neuropathic Pain-Focus on Peripheral Neuropathic Pain.
  Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) 2022 Diaz MM, Caylor J, Strigo I, Lerman I, Henry B, Lopez E, Wallace MS, Ellis RJ, Simmons AN, Keltner JR
• Understanding Pain and Trauma Symptoms in Veterans From Resting-State Connectivity: Unsupervised Modeling.
  Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) 2022 Strigo IA, Spadoni AD, Simmons AN
• Craving of prescription opioids among veterans with chronic pain.
  Pain 2022 Toor T, Murphy E, Simmons AN, Palyo S, Librodo SC, Strigo IA
• Age-dependent brain morphometry in Major Depressive disorder.
  NeuroImage. Clinical 2021 Myoraku A, Lang A, Taylor CT, Scott Mackin R, Meyerhoff DJ, Mueller S, Strigo IA, Tosun D
• Association of painful human immunodeficiency virus distal sensory polyneuropathy with aberrant expectation of pain relief: functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence.
  Brain communications 2021 Strigo IA, Keltner JR, Ellis RJ, Simmons AN
• The Resurrection of Interdisciplinary Pain Rehabilitation: Outcomes Across a Veterans Affairs Collaborative.
  Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) 2021 Murphy JL, Palyo SA, Schmidt ZS, Hollrah LN, Banou E, Van Keuren CP, Strigo IA
• Onset hyperalgesia and offset analgesia: Transient increases or decreases of noxious thermal stimulus intensity robustly modulate subsequent perceived pain intensity.
  PloS one 2020 Alter BJ, Aung MS, Strigo IA, Fields HL
• Noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation alters neural response and physiological autonomic tone to noxious thermal challenge.
  PloS one 2019 Lerman I, Davis B, Huang M, Huang C, Sorkin L, Proudfoot J, Zhong E, Kimball D, Rao R, Simon B, Spadoni A, Strigo I, Baker DG, Simmons AN
• Treating the TMD/Chronic Pain Patient: Psychiatry and Psychology.
  Contemporary Management of Temporomandibular Disorders 2019 Sue Gritzner, Valerie Jackson, Irina Strigo, David Spiegel
• Fear as a translational mechanism in the psychopathology of anorexia nervosa.
  Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews 2018 Murray SB, Strober M, Craske MG, Griffiths S, Levinson CA, Strigo IA
• Multimodal canonical correlation reveals converging neural circuitry across trauma-related disorders of affect and cognition.
  Neurobiology of stress 2018 Stout DM, Buchsbaum MS, Spadoni AD, Risbrough VB, Strigo IA, Matthews SC, Simmons AN
• An exploratory examination of reappraisal success in depressed adolescents: Preliminary evidence of functional differences in cognitive control brain regions.
  Journal of affective disorders 2018 LeWinn KZ, Strigo IA, Connolly CG, Ho TC, Tymofiyeva O, Sacchet MD, Weng HY, Blom EH, Simmons AN, Yang TT
• Anorexia nervosa, neuroimaging research, and the contextual salience of food cues: The food approach-avoidance conundrum.
  The International journal of eating disorders 2018 Murray SB, Strigo IA
• An Interdisciplinary Pain Rehabilitation Program for Veterans with Chronic Pain: Description and Initial Evaluation of Outcomes.
  Pain research & management 2018 Anamkath NS, Palyo SA, Jacobs SC, Lartigue A, Schopmeyer K, Strigo IA
• Repeated Exposure to Experimental Pain Differentiates Combat Traumatic Brain Injury with and without Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
  Journal of neurotrauma 2017 Strigo IA, Spadoni AD, Inslicht SS, Simmons AN
• The clinical application of fMRI data in a single-patient diagnostic conundrum: Classifying brain response to experimental pain to distinguish between gastrointestinal, depressive and eating disorder symptoms.
  Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia 2017 Strigo IA, Murray SB, Simmons AN, Bernard RS, Huang JS, Kaye WH
• A neurobiological view of pain as a homeostatic emotion.
  2017 Irina A Strigo, Arthur D Craig
• Neural differences underlying face processing in veterans with TBI and co-occurring TBI and PTSD.
  Journal of affective disorders 2017 Bomyea J, Matthews SC, Buchsbaum MS, Spadoni AD, Strigo IA, Simmons AN
• Association of Traumatic Brain Injury With Chronic Pain in Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans: Effect of Comorbid Mental Health Conditions.
  Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation 2017 Seal KH, Bertenthal D, Barnes DE, Byers AL, Strigo I, Yaffe K, Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium Study Group
• (286) Optimizing conditioned analgesia in healthy volunteers for translational applications.
  Journal of Pain 2017 B. Alter, I. Strigo, H. Fields
• Slow brushing reduces heat pain in humans.
  European journal of pain (London, England) 2017 Liljencrantz J, Strigo I, Ellingsen DM, Krämer HH, Lundblad LC, Nagi SS, Leknes S, Olausson H
• Pilot Study of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Responses to Somatic Pain Stimuli in Youth With Functional and Inflammatory Gastrointestinal Disease.
  Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition 2016 Huang JS, Terrones L, Simmons AN, Kaye W, Strigo I
• Interoception, homeostatic emotions and sympathovagal balance.
  Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 2016 Strigo IA, Craig AD
• Faking bad: The neural correlates of feigning memory impairment.
  Neuropsychology 2016 Kosheleva E, Spadoni AD, Strigo IA, Buchsbaum MS, Simmons AN
• Emotion-Dependent Functional Connectivity of the Default Mode Network in Adolescent Depression.
  Biological psychiatry 2014 Ho TC, Connolly CG, Henje Blom E, LeWinn KZ, Strigo IA, Paulus MP, Frank G, Max JE, Wu J, Chan M, Tapert SF, Simmons AN, Yang TT
• Evidence for acute central sensitization to prolonged experimental pain in posttraumatic stress disorder.
  Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) 2014 Moeller-Bertram T, Strigo IA, Simmons AN, Schilling JM, Patel P, Baker DG
• Too hard to control: compromised pain anticipation and modulation in mild traumatic brain injury.
  Translational psychiatry 2014 Strigo IA, Spadoni AD, Lohr J, Simmons AN
• Further evidence of emotional allodynia in unmedicated young adults with major depressive disorder.
  PloS one 2013 Ushinsky A, Reinhardt LE, Simmons AN, Strigo IA
• Neurosubstrates of remission following prolonged exposure therapy in veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
  Psychotherapy and psychosomatics 2013 Simmons AN, Norman SB, Spadoni AD, Strigo IA
• Greater anterior insula activation during anticipation of food images in women recovered from anorexia nervosa versus controls.
  Psychiatry research 2013 Oberndorfer T, Simmons A, McCurdy D, Strigo I, Matthews S, Yang T, Irvine Z, Kaye W
• Decreased frontal regulation during pain anticipation in unmedicated subjects with major depressive disorder.
  Translational psychiatry 2013 Strigo IA, Matthews SC, Simmons AN
• Diffusion tensor imaging evidence of white matter disruption associated with loss versus alteration of consciousness in warfighters exposed to combat in Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom.
  Psychiatry research 2012 Matthews SC, Spadoni AD, Lohr JB, Strigo IA, Simmons AN
• Evidence for acute central sensitization to prolonged experimental pain in subjects with PTSD.
  European Journal of Psychotraumatology 2012 Tobias Moeller-Bertram, Irina Strigo, Alan Simmons, Piyush Patel, Dewleen G. Baker
• The effects of temporal unpredictability in anticipation of negative events in combat veterans with PTSD.
  Journal of affective disorders 2012 Simmons AN, Flagan TM, Wittmann M, Strigo IA, Matthews SC, Donovan H, Lohr JB, Paulus MP
• Altered insula activation during pain anticipation in individuals recovered from anorexia nervosa: evidence of interoceptive dysregulation.
  The International journal of eating disorders 2012 Strigo IA, Matthews SC, Simmons AN, Oberndorfer T, Klabunde M, Reinhardt LE, Kaye WH
• Combat-exposed war veterans at risk for suicide show hyperactivation of prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate during error processing.
  Psychosomatic medicine 2012 Matthews S, Spadoni A, Knox K, Strigo I, Simmons A
• Pain and emotion in the insular cortex: evidence for functional reorganization in major depression.
  Neuroscience letters 2012 Mutschler I, Ball T, Wankerl J, Strigo IA
• Correlation of pain ratings and systemic interleukin-6 release in response to intramuscular capsaicin in healthy humans.
  Journal of Pain 2012 T. Moeller-Bertram, L. Ky, C. Coe, I. Strigo, M. Kincaid, J. Keltner, J. Schilling, N. Sehgal, A. Wasan, M. Backonja
• Altered insula activation in anticipation of changing emotional states: neural mechanisms underlying cognitive flexibility in Special Operations Forces personnel.
  Neuroreport 2012 Simmons AN, Fitzpatrick S, Strigo IA, Potterat EG, Johnson DC, Matthews SC, Orden KF, Swain JL, Paulus MP
• The parametric, psychological, neuropsychological, and neuroanatomical properties of self and world evaluation.
  PloS one 2012 Simmons AN, Thayer RE, Spadoni AD, Matthews SC, Strigo IA, Tapert SF
• Altered amygdala activation during face processing in Iraqi and Afghanistani war veterans.
  Biology of mood & anxiety disorders 2011 Simmons AN, Matthews SC, Strigo IA, Baker DG, Donovan HK, Motezadi A, Stein MB, Paulus MP
• Voxel-based morphometry of patients with schizophrenia or bipolar I disorder: a matched control study.
  Psychiatry research 2011 Brown GG, Lee JS, Strigo IA, Caligiuri MP, Meloy MJ, Lohr J
• Pain and post traumatic stress disorder - review of clinical and experimental evidence.
  Neuropharmacology 2011 Moeller-Bertram T, Keltner J, Strigo IA
• Corrigendum to “The effects of loss versus alteration of consciousness on inhibition-related brain activity among individuals with a history of blast-related concussion” [Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 191 (1) (2011) 76–79].
  Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging 2011 Scott Matthews, Alan Simmons, Irina Strigo
• Prolonged pain perception in subjects with PTSD in response to an intramuscular capsaicin injection.
  Journal of Pain 2011 T. Moeller-Bertram, A. Valencerina, A. Motazedi, U. Haji, D. Garcia, D. Baker, P. Patel, I. Strigo
• Demand-specific alteration of medial prefrontal cortex response during an inhibition task in recovered anorexic women.
  The International journal of eating disorders 2011 Oberndorfer TA, Kaye WH, Simmons AN, Strigo IA, Matthews SC
• Anxiety positive subjects show altered processing in the anterior insula during anticipation of negative stimuli.
  Human brain mapping 2010 Simmons AN, Stein MB, Strigo IA, Arce E, Hitchcock C, Paulus MP
• The effects of loss versus alteration of consciousness on inhibition-related brain activity among individuals with a history of blast-related concussion.
  Psychiatry research 2010 Matthews S, Simmons A, Strigo I
• The relationship between amygdala activation and passive exposure time to an aversive cue during a continuous performance task.
  PloS one 2010 Strigo IA, Simmons AN, Matthews SC, Craig AD
• Dynamical principles of emotion-cognition interaction: mathematical images of mental disorders.
  PloS one 2010 Rabinovich MI, Muezzinoglu MK, Strigo I, Bystritsky A
• Neural correlates of altered pain response in women with posttraumatic stress disorder from intimate partner violence.
  Biological psychiatry 2010 Strigo IA, Simmons AN, Matthews SC, Grimes EM, Allard CB, Reinhardt LE, Paulus MP, Stein MB
• A multimodal imaging study in U.S. veterans of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom with and without major depression after blast-related concussion.
  NeuroImage 2010 Matthews SC, Strigo IA, Simmons AN, O'Connell RM, Reinhardt LE, Moseley SA
• Escitalopram attenuates posterior cingulate activity during self-evaluation in healthy volunteers.
  Psychiatry research 2010 Matthews SC, Simmons AN, Strigo IA, Arce E, Stein MB, Paulus MP
• Right anterior insula hypoactivity during anticipation of homeostatic shifts in major depressive disorder.
  Psychosomatic medicine 2010 Strigo IA, Matthews SC, Simmons AN
• Adolescents With Major Depression Demonstrate Increased Amygdala Activation.
  Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 2010 Tony T. Yang, Alan N. Simmons, Scott C. Matthews, Susan F. Tapert, Guido K. Frank, Jeffrey E. Max, Amanda Bischoff-Grethe, Amy E. Lansing, Gregory Brown, Irina A. Strigo, Jing Wu, Martin P. Paulus
• Adolescents with major depression demonstrate increased amygdala activation.
  Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2010 Yang TT, Simmons AN, Matthews SC, Tapert SF, Frank GK, Max JE, Bischoff-Grethe A, Lansing AE, Brown G, Strigo IA, Wu J, Paulus MP
• Anticipatory processing in combat related PTSD.
  NeuroImage 2009 AN Simmons, SC Matthews, IA Strigo, H Donovan, DG Baker, MP Paulus
• Time-Dependent Amygdala Activation During Anticipation of Pain.
  NeuroImage 2009 IA Strigo, AN Simmons, SC Matthews, AD Craig
• Initial evidence of a failure to activate right anterior insula during affective set shifting in posttraumatic stress disorder.
  Psychosomatic medicine 2009 Simmons A, Strigo IA, Matthews SC, Paulus MP, Stein MB
• Inhibition-related activity in subgenual cingulate is associated with symptom severity in major depression.
  Psychiatry research 2009 Matthews S, Simmons A, Strigo I, Gianaros P, Yang T, Paulus M
• Association of major depressive disorder with altered functional brain response during anticipation and processing of heat pain.
  Archives of general psychiatry 2008 Strigo IA, Simmons AN, Matthews SC, Craig AD, Paulus MP
• Decreased functional coupling of the amygdala and supragenual cingulate is related to increased depression in unmedicated individuals with current major depressive disorder.
  Journal of affective disorders 2008 Matthews SC, Strigo IA, Simmons AN, Yang TT, Paulus MP
• Increased affective bias revealed using experimental graded heat stimuli in young depressed adults: evidence of "emotional allodynia".
  Psychosomatic medicine 2008 Strigo IA, Simmons AN, Matthews SC, Craig AD, Paulus MP
• Heritability of anterior cingulate response to conflict: an fMRI study in female twins.
  NeuroImage 2007 Matthews SC, Simmons AN, Strigo I, Jang K, Stein MB, Paulus MP
• Anticipation of aversive visual stimuli is associated with increased insula activation in anxiety-prone subjects.
  Biological psychiatry 2006 Simmons A, Strigo I, Matthews SC, Paulus MP, Stein MB
• Feelings of warmth correlate with neural activity in right anterior insular cortex.
  Neuroscience letters 2005 Olausson H, Charron J, Marchand S, Villemure C, Strigo IA, Bushnell MC
• Visceral and cutaneous pain representation in parasylvian cortex.
  Neuroscience letters 2005 Strigo IA, Albanese MC, Bushnell MC, Duncan GH
• Neural correlates of painful genital touch in women with vulvar vestibulitis syndrome.
  Pain 2005 Pukall CF, Strigo IA, Binik YM, Amsel R, Khalifé S, Bushnell MC
• Anteroposterior somatotopy of innocuous cooling activation focus in human dorsal posterior insular cortex.
  American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology 2005 Hua le H, Strigo IA, Baxter LC, Johnson SC, Craig AD
• The effects of racemic ketamine on painful stimulation of skin and viscera in human subjects.
  Pain 2005 Strigo IA, Duncan GH, Bushnell CM, Boivin M, Wainer I, Rodriguez Rosas EM, Persson J
• Pain in women Neural processing of genital pain in women with vulvar vestibulitis syndrome: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
  Journal of Pain 2004 C. Pukall, I. Strigo, Y. Binik, S. Khalifé, M. Bushnell
• Differentiation of visceral and cutaneous pain in the human brain.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2003 Strigo IA, Duncan GH, Boivin M, Bushnell MC
• Unmyelinated tactile afferents signal touch and project to insular cortex.
  Nature neuroscience 2002 Olausson H, Lamarre Y, Backlund H, Morin C, Wallin BG, Starck G, Ekholm S, Strigo I, Worsley K, Vallbo AB, Bushnell MC
• Imaging Pain in the Brain: The Role of the Cerebral Cortex in Pain Perception and Modulation.
  MYOPAIN 2002 M. Catherine Bushnell, Chantal Villemure, Irina Strigo, Gary H. Duncan
• Effect of ambient temperature on human pain and temperature perception.
  Anesthesiology 2000 Strigo IA, Carli F, Bushnell MC