About

Jason Kutch is a researcher with a significant body of work focusing on neuromuscular function, muscle coordination, and biomechanics. His publications include studies on the encoding of joint torque in electromyographic signals, the analysis of motor unit torque, and the investigation of muscle cooperation patterns. Kutch has contributed to computational models for neuromuscular function and has explored the mechanical actions of individual muscles through endpoint force analysis. His research also addresses the challenges in proving the existence of muscle synergies of neural origin and the implications of muscle redundancy on muscle dysfunction robustness. Additionally, Kutch has investigated cortical activation associated with muscle synergies, particularly in the human male pelvic floor, indicating a focus on both fundamental neuromuscular mechanisms and their applications to specific anatomical regions. His work is characterized by a combination of experimental and computational approaches to understand the complexities of muscle function and coordination.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Medicine
• Physical medicine and rehabilitation
• Physical therapy
• Neuroscience
• Surgery
• Psychology
• Engineering
• Internal medicine
• Algorithm
• Urology

Selected publications

• Association of widespread pain and peak alpha frequency cannot be isolated to a single network

  PAIN Reports · 2026-04-09

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Introduction: Peak alpha frequency (PAF), an electroencephalography measure, has gained interest due to its association to pain-related neural processes in both healthy and clinical populations. In healthy groups, PAF derived from the sensorimotor component has strongly correlated with pain sensitivity, but in patient populations, only channel-based methods such as the global average and regions of interest have been investigated. Therefore, the specific role of component-based PAF such as the sensorimotor component and how it compares with channel-based methods remains undefined in chronic pain. Objective: To evaluate the performance of multiple spatial variations of PAF in distinguishing between widespread and localized chronic pelvic pain. Methods: This secondary analysis included 38 individuals with urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome and were categorized as having widespread (n = 24) or localized (n = 14) pain based on self-reported body maps. Resting-state electroencephalography data were collected, and 4 types of spatial variations were used: global average, region of interest, sensorimotor component, and group independent component analysis. Results: Both the global average and region of interest-based PAF had significantly lower average PAF among individuals in the widespread compared with localized pain groups. There was no significant difference for the sensorimotor component or group independent component analysis-component PAF. Channel-based methods had larger effect sizes compared with the component-based methods when explaining differences in PAF between pain groups. Conclusion: These findings suggest that chronic widespread pain is associated with widely distributed changes in cortical function that cannot be captured in a single component, indicating that it affects multiple distinct neural networks.

  PublisherDOI

• Widespread Pain Moderates the Response to Centrally‐Acting Therapies in an Observational Cohort of Patients With Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome: A MAPP Research Network Study

  Neurourology and Urodynamics · 2025-05-25 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  PURPOSE: Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome (UCPPS) impacts millions of people in the United States but treatment options remain largely unsatisfying. A large number of neurobiological studies from the Multidisciplinary Approach to the study of chronic Pelvic Pain (MAPP) research network and others point to aberrant pain mechanisms in patients with UCPPS and widespread pain, but the clinical significance of widespread pain has been speculative. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the current exploratory study we investigated whether pain and urologic symptoms responded to centrally-directed therapies (tricyclic antidepressants/gabapentinoids) versus peripherally-directed (pelvic floor physical therapy/hydrodistension) therapies depending on the presence or absence of widespread pain when the new treatment was initiated. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Forty UCPPS patients (n = 19 widespread) underwent an evaluation of UCPPS symptoms before and after twelve weeks of either centrally-directed (n = 16) or peripherally-directed therapy. Participants were stratified post hoc into widespread (two or more non-pelvic pain sites + pelvic pain) and localized pain categories. General linear models were used to test the group X treatment interaction effect, adjusting for age, sex, and baseline outcome levels. On average, patients with widespread pain receiving centrally-directed therapies improved more than six points on the 0-28 Pelvic Pain Severity scale, while those with localized pain showed no average improvement (interaction p = 0.005). Similar effects were observed for the bladder symptom impact score (interaction p = 0.011) but not urologic symptom severity (interaction p = 0.72). While these findings are exploratory, they provide preliminary evidence for phenotype X treatment interactions in UCPPS and should be followed by confirmatory studies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02514265-MAPP Research Network: Trans-MAPP Study of Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain: Symptom Patterns Study (SPS). CLINICALTRIALS: gov Identifier: NCT02898220-Trans-MAPP Study of Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain: Control Study Protocol.xs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Impact of Airflow and Multisensory Feedback on Immersion and Cybersickness in a VR Surfing Simulation

  IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics · 2025-03-07 · 5 citations

  article

  Virtual Reality (VR) systems have increasingly leveraged multisensory feedback to enrich user experience and mitigate cybersickness. With a similar goal in focus, this paper presents an in-depth exploration of integrating airflow with visual and kinesthetic cues in a VR surfing simulation. Utilizing a custom-designed airflow system and a physical surfboard mounted on a 6-Degree of Freedom (DoF) motion platform, we present two studies that evaluate the effect of the different feedback modalities. The first study assesses the impact of variable airflow, which dynamically adjusts to the user's speed (wind speed) in VR, compared to constant airflow conditions, under both active and passive user engagement scenarios. Results demonstrate that variable airflow significantly enhances immersion and reduces cybersickness, particularly when users are actively engaged in the simulation. The second study evaluates the individual and combined effects of vision, motion, and airflow on acceleration perception, user immersion, and cybersickness, revealing that the integration of all feedback modalities yields the most immersive and comfortable VR experience. This study underscores the importance of synchronized multisensory feedback in dynamic VR environments and provides valuable insights for the design of more immersive and realistic virtual simulations, particularly in aquatic, interactive, and motion-intensive scenarios.

  PublisherDOI

• Peak alpha frequency is related to the degree of widespread pain, but not pain intensity or duration, among people with urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome

  PAIN Reports · 2025-03-11 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Introduction: Effective prevention and management strategies for chronic pain remain elusive. This has prompted investigations into biomarkers to better understand the mechanisms underlying pain development and persistence. One promising marker is low peak alpha frequency (PAF), an electroencephalography (EEG) measure that has been associated with increased sensitivity during acute experimental pain. However, findings regarding the relationship between PAF and chronic pain are variable, potentially due to disparate levels of central sensitization among chronic pain populations. This is evidenced by the variable extent of widespread pain, a phenotypic marker for central sensitization, observed across individuals with chronic pain. Objective: To explore the impact of widespread pain on PAF among people with chronic pain. Method: Thirty-eight individuals with urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome were categorized as having widespread (n = 24) or localized (n = 14) pain based upon self-reported body maps. Electroencephalography data were collected under resting conditions, and PAF was determined using spectral analysis. Results: Participants with widespread pain had a significantly lower global average PAF than those with localized pain, after controlling for age and sex. This relationship persisted even when accounting for pain intensity and duration. Peak alpha frequency differences were observed across all EEG electrodes, particularly in the sensorimotor and occipital regions. Conclusion: Preliminary findings suggest that PAF may represent a potential biomarker for central sensitization in chronic pain, highlighting the importance of considering pain distribution in chronic pain research. Future studies with larger samples should investigate the neural mechanisms underlying these observations and the clinical utility of PAF in diverse chronic pain populations.

  PublisherDOI

• Brain predicted age in chronic pelvic pain: a study by the Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic Pelvic Pain Research Network

  Pain · 2024-10-16 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  ABSTRACT: The effect of chronic pain on brain-predicted age is unclear. We performed secondary analyses of a large cross-sectional and 3-year longitudinal data set from the Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic Pelvic Pain Research Network to test the hypothesis that chronic pelvic pain accelerates brain aging and brain aging rate. Brain-predicted ages of 492 chronic pelvic pain patients and 72 controls were determined from T1-weighted MRI scans and used to calculate the brain-predicted age gap estimation (brainAGE; brain-predicted - chronological age). Separate regression models determined whether the presence of chronic pelvic pain could explain brainAGE and brain aging rate when accounting for covariates. We performed secondary analyses to understand whether brainAGE was associated with factors that subtype chronic pelvic pain patients (inflammation, widespread pain, and psychological comorbidities). We found a significant association between chronic pelvic pain and brainAGE that differed by sex. Women with chronic pelvic pain had higher brainAGE than female controls, whereas men with chronic pelvic pain exhibited lower brainAGE than male controls on average-however, the effect was not statistically significant in men or women when considered independently. Secondary analyses demonstrated preliminary evidence of an association between inflammatory load and brainAGE. Further studies of brainAGE and inflammatory load are warranted.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reducing pain by improving brain and muscle activity with motor cortical neuromodulation in women with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

  Trials · 2024-09-11

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  INTRODUCTION: Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a chronic pain condition creating a wide range of urologic and pain symptoms. There is currently limited evidence to understand the mechanisms of IC/BPS. There have been recent studies suggesting that altered function in brain motor areas, particularly the supplementary motor cortex (SMA), relates to altered bladder sensorimotor control and may play an important role in IC/BPS. This study aims to provide evidence that non-invasive stimulation targeting the motor cortex may help reduce IC/BPS pain, as well as better understand the neural mechanism by which this stimulation targets neuromuscular dysfunction. This study is a two-group quadruple-blinded randomized controlled trial (RCT) of active vs. sham repetitive transmagnetic stimulation (rTMS). In addition, our study will also include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), pelvic floor electromyography (EMG), pelvic exam, and outcome measures and questionnaires to further study outcomes. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: All aspects of the study were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Southern California (protocol HS-20-01021). All participants provided informed consent by the research coordinator/assistants. The results will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals and disseminated at scientific conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04734847. Registered on February 1, 2021.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Motor cortical neuromodulation in women with Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome: reducing pain by improving brain and muscle activity

  Research Square · 2024-07-27

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Perception and Control of Surfing in Virtual Reality Using a 6-DoF Motion Platform

  Lecture notes in computer science · 2024-11-02 · 3 citations

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Peak alpha frequency differs between chronic back pain and chronic widespread pain

  European Journal of Pain · 2024-10-07 · 6 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Low peak alpha frequency (PAF) is an electroencephalography (EEG) outcome associated reliably with high acute pain sensitivity. However, existing research suggests that the relationship between PAF and chronic pain is more variable. This variability could be attributable to chronic pain groups typically being examined as homogenous populations, without consideration being given to potential diagnosis-specific differences. Indeed, while emerging work has compared individuals with chronic pain to healthy controls, no previous studies have examined differences in PAF between diagnoses or across chronic pain subtypes. METHODS: To address this gap, we reanalysed a dataset of resting state EEG previously used to demonstrate a lack of difference in PAF between individuals with chronic pain and healthy controls. In this new analysis, we separated patients by diagnosis before comparing PAF across three subgroups: chronic widespread pain (n = 30), chronic back pain (n = 38), and healthy controls (n = 87). RESULTS: We replicate the original finding of no significant difference between chronic pain groups and controls, but also find that individuals with widespread pain had significantly higher global average PAF values than those of people with chronic back pain [p = 0.028, β = 0.25 Hz] after controlling for age, sex, and depression. CONCLUSIONS: These novel findings reveal PAF values in individuals with chronic pain may be diagnosis-specific and not uniformly shifted from the values of healthy controls. Future studies should account for diagnosis and be cautious with exploring homogenous 'chronic pain' classifications during investigations of PAF. SIGNIFICANCE: Our work suggests that, contrary to previous hypotheses, inter-individual differences in PAF reflect diagnosis-specific mechanisms rather than the general presence of chronic pain, and therefore may have important implications for future work regarding individually-tailored pain management strategies.

  PublisherDOI

• Preparing the brain for pain: new insights and potential biomarkers

  Pain · 2024-11-21

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic Pelvic Pain (MAPP) Research Network Discovery Site

  NIH · $11.3M · 2008–2024

• NIH Grant F31NS057855

  NIH · $45k · 2010

• NIH Grant R01DK110669

  NIH · $1.3M · 2022

• Motor cortical neuromodulation in women with Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome: reducing pain by improving brain and muscle activity

  NIH · $2.4M · 2020–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Emeran A. Mayer

  University of California, Los Angeles

  87 shared

• Bruce D. Naliboff

  University of California, Los Angeles

  82 shared

• Chris Mullins

  National Institutes of Health

  56 shared

• Richard E. Harris

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  49 shared

• Larissa V. Rodríguez

  Cornell University

  48 shared

• Daniel J. Clauw

  45 shared

• J. Richard Landis

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  45 shared

• Jennifer S. Labus

  University of California, Los Angeles

  45 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Biokinesiology

  University of Southern California

  2007

• M.S., Biokinesiology

  University of Southern California

  2003

• B.S., Biokinesiology

  University of Southern California

  2001