Despite the growing numbers of functional neuroimaging studies of the human brain revealing a network of brain regions involved in processing nociceptive information still little is known about cerebral processing of muscle pain. The aim of this study was to create an alternative painful muscle stimulus and to monitor re-lated cerebral activation patterns. Seven healthy subjects partici-pated in a functional MRI study where pain was induced with a simple pressure cuff (Siemens 31–40cm) tied around the right calf. By reaching 0.3 bar or more (0.4 bar maximum), a deep pain, resembling a sort of visceral pain, over the whole lower leg was described. We believe this pain is most likely due to a transient high pressure in the lower leg compartments. The stimulation paradigm involved 5 cycles of increased pressure (24 sec.) with resting conditions of 18 sec. in between. The intensity was ad-justed to reach a rating of 60% on the VAS. During painful stimu-lation there were significant increases in rCBF in the insular cor-tex, the thalamus, and the cingulate gyrus bilaterally. However, in contrast to superficial skin stimulation, deep muscle stimulation results in a decrease of rCBF in SMA, M1 and S1 (face region) which could be interpreted as an inhibition of these regions by this type of pain. In addition an increase in activity in the superior frontal gyrus was found which may be related to the feeling of unpleasantness evoked by this deep and dull pain.