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A person can imagine an event never experienced, drawing on constructs of events that have been experienced. For example, a non-astronaut can imagine being on a rocket ship traveling to the moon based on a variety of life experiences. We sought to characterize the brain activity that occurs when one imagines severe catastrophic pain beyond anything ever actually experienced. Our specific goal is to test whether past experience with or without chronic pain is reflected in the brain systems of pain imagery. We completed preliminary analysis on 14 healthy volunteers, 25 individuals with chronic low back pain, and 12 individuals who have recovered from an acute episode of low back pain. During block-design fMRI scanning, participants were instructed to imagine severe catastrophic pain involving bone-crushing injuries while their entire body is on fire. In our preliminary analysis, all groups had prefrontal activity …