“For decades studies have tried to link back pain to back problems like bulging discs or bad posture,” Yoni Ashar, assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and first author of this study, told Medical News Today. “It turns out these sorts of things only cause relatively few cases of chronic back pain. Most cases of chronic back pain are caused primarily by brain changes, like the brain amplifying signals it receives from the back.”