Hubbard CS, et al. - Since much brain study on fibromyalgia (FM) concentrates on the research of hyper-responsiveness to painful stimuli, some studies propose that the improved pain-related brain activity often described in FM studies may be in part defined by stronger responses to salient aspects of the stimulation rather than, or in addition to, its painfulness. Researchers thus assumed that FM individuals would show elevated brain responses to both pain onset and offset, two salient sensory events of opposing valences. Researchers recruited a total of 38 FM individuals (mean age ± SD = 46.1 ± 13.4; 33 females) and 15 healthy controls (mean age ± SD = 45.5 ± 12.4; 10 females) to receive a moderately painful pressure stimulus to the leg during blood-oxygen-level-dependent functional MRI scanning. The outcomes of this study displayed that the increased sensitivity shown by FM individuals in response to painful stimuli may indicate a more generalized hypersensitivity to salient sensory events, and that brain hyperactivation may be a mechanism potentially involved in the generalized hypervigilance to salient stimuli in FM.