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Yoo CH, Rani N, Shen S, Loggia ML, Gaynor K, Moore KE, Bagdasarian FA, Lin YS, Edwards RR, Price JC, Hooker JM, Wey HY. Investigating neuroepigenetic alterations in chronic low back pain with positron emission tomography. Pain 2024:00006396-990000000-00607. [PMID: 38776171 DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2023] [Accepted: 04/10/2024] [Indexed: 05/24/2024]
Abstract
ABSTRACT Epigenetics has gained considerable interest as potential mediators of molecular alterations that could underlie the prolonged sensitization of nociceptors, neurons, and glia in response to various environmental stimuli. Histone acetylation and deacetylation, key processes in modulating chromatin, influence gene expression; elevated histone acetylation enhances transcriptional activity, whereas decreased acetylation leads to DNA condensation and gene repression. Altered levels of histone deacetylase (HDAC) have been detected in various animal pain models, and HDAC inhibitors have demonstrated analgesic effects in these models, indicating HDACs' involvement in chronic pain pathways. However, animal studies have predominantly examined epigenetic modulation within the spinal cord after pain induction, which may not fully reflect the complexity of chronic pain in humans. Moreover, methodological limitations have previously impeded an in-depth study of epigenetic changes in the human brain. In this study, we employed [11C]Martinostat, an HDAC-selective radiotracer, positron emission tomography to assess HDAC availability in the brains of 23 patients with chronic low back pain (cLBP) and 11 age-matched and sex-matched controls. Our data revealed a significant reduction of [11C]Martinostat binding in several brain regions associated with pain processing in patients with cLBP relative to controls, highlighting the promising potential of targeting HDAC modulation as a therapeutic strategy for cLBP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chi-Hyeon Yoo
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Nisha Rani
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Shiqian Shen
- Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Marco L Loggia
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Kate Gaynor
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Katelyn E Moore
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Frederick A Bagdasarian
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Yu-Shiuan Lin
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Centre for Chronobiology, University Psychiatric Clinics Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Robert R Edwards
- Department of Anesthesia, Anesthesia and Pain Management Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Julie C Price
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Jacob M Hooker
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Hsiao-Ying Wey
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
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2
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Tu Y, Li Z, Zhang L, Zhang H, Bi Y, Yue L, Hu L. Pain-preferential thalamocortical neural dynamics across species. Nat Hum Behav 2024; 8:149-163. [PMID: 37813996 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01714-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2023] [Accepted: 09/01/2023] [Indexed: 10/11/2023]
Abstract
Searching for pain-preferential neural activity is essential for understanding and managing pain. Here, we investigated the preferential role of thalamocortical neural dynamics in encoding pain using human neuroimaging and rat electrophysiology across three studies. In study 1, we found that painful stimuli preferentially activated the medial-dorsal (MD) thalamic nucleus and its functional connectivity with the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula in two human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) datasets (n = 399 and n = 25). In study 2, human fMRI and electroencephalography fusion analyses (n = 220) revealed that pain-preferential MD responses were identified 89-295 ms after painful stimuli. In study 3, rat electrophysiology further showed that painful stimuli preferentially activated MD neurons and MD-ACC connectivity. These converging cross-species findings provided evidence for pain-preferential thalamocortical neural dynamics, which could guide future pain evaluation and management strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiheng Tu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Zhenjiang Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Libo Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Huijuan Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yanzhi Bi
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Lupeng Yue
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Li Hu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
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3
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Fan N, Chen J, Zhao B, Liu L, Yang W, Chen X, Lu Z, Wang L, Cao H, Ma A. Neural correlates of central pain sensitization in chronic low back pain: a resting-state fMRI study. Neuroradiology 2023; 65:1767-1776. [PMID: 37882803 DOI: 10.1007/s00234-023-03237-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2023] [Accepted: 10/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/27/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The objective of this study is to explore the neural correlates of pain sensitization in patients with chronic low back pain (cLBP). While the association between cLBP and pain sensitization has been widely reported, the underlying brain mechanism responsible for this relationship requires further investigation. METHODS Our study included 56 cLBP patients and 56 healthy controls (HC). Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were obtained, and the voxel-wise amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) was calculated to identify brain alterations in cLBP patients compared to HC groups. Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to explore the association between clinical data and brain alterations. Furthermore, mediation analyses were performed to investigate the path association between brain alterations and pain-related behaviors. RESULTS Our findings revealed that patients with cLBP exhibited higher sensitivity, attention, and catastrophizing tendencies towards pain compared to HC. Furthermore, cLBP patients displayed significantly higher ALFF in various brain regions within the "pain matrix" and the default mode network when compared to HC. The altered precuneus ALFF was positively correlated with pain intensity (R = 0.51, P<0.001) and was negatively correlated with pain sensitivity (R = -0.43, P<0.001) in cLBP patients. Importantly, the effect of altered precuneus ALFF on pain intensity was mediated by pain threshold in these patients. CONCLUSION Our study suggests that altered neural activity in the precuneus may contribute to pain hypersensitivity, which further exacerbating pain in cLBP patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- NingJian Fan
- Department of Spinal Surgery, The Second Hospital of Tangshan, Tangshan, China
| | - JiXi Chen
- Pediatric Neurology Department EEG Room, Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Tangshan, Tangshan, China
| | - Bing Zhao
- Department of Spinal Surgery, The Second Hospital of Tangshan, Tangshan, China
| | - LiYun Liu
- Department of Spinal Surgery, The Second Hospital of Tangshan, Tangshan, China
| | - WeiZhen Yang
- Department of Spinal Surgery, The Second Hospital of Tangshan, Tangshan, China
| | - Xian Chen
- Department of Spinal Surgery, The Second Hospital of Tangshan, Tangshan, China
| | - ZhanBin Lu
- Department of Spinal Surgery, The Second Hospital of Tangshan, Tangshan, China
| | - LiGong Wang
- Department of Spinal Surgery, The Second Hospital of Tangshan, Tangshan, China
| | - HengCong Cao
- Department of Spinal Surgery, The Second Hospital of Tangshan, Tangshan, China
| | - AiGuo Ma
- Department of Trauma, The Second Hospital of Tangshan, Tangshan, China.
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Corradi‐Dell'Acqua C, Hofstetter C, Sharvit G, Hugli O, Vuilleumier P. Healthcare experience affects pain-specific responses to others' suffering in the anterior insula. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:5655-5671. [PMID: 37608624 PMCID: PMC10619377 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 07/13/2023] [Accepted: 07/22/2023] [Indexed: 08/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Medical students and professional healthcare providers often underestimate patients' pain, together with decreased neural responses to pain information in the anterior insula (AI), a brain region implicated in self-pain processing and negative affect. However, the functional significance and specificity of these neural changes remains debated. Across two experiments, we recruited university medical students and emergency nurses to test the role of healthcare experience on the brain reactivity to other's pain, emotions, and beliefs, using both pictorial and verbal cues. Brain responses to self-pain was also assessed and compared with those to observed pain. Our results confirmed that healthcare experience decreased the activity in AI in response to others' suffering. This effect was independent from stimulus modality (pictures or texts), but specific for pain, as it did not generalize to inferences about other mental or affective states. Furthermore, representational similarity and multivariate pattern analysis revealed that healthcare experience impacted specifically a component of the neural representation of others' pain that is shared with that of first-hand nociception, and related more to AI than to other pain-responsive regions. Taken together, our study suggests a decreased propensity to appraise others' suffering as one's own, associated with a reduced recruitment of pain-specific information in AI. These findings provide new insights into neural mechanisms leading to pain underestimation by caregivers in clinical settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Corrado Corradi‐Dell'Acqua
- Theory of Pain Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences (FPSE)University of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
- Geneva Neuroscience CenterUniversity of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
- Laboratory of Behavioural Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of NeuroscienceUniversity Medical Center, University of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
| | - Christoph Hofstetter
- Laboratory of Behavioural Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of NeuroscienceUniversity Medical Center, University of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
| | - Gil Sharvit
- Laboratory of Behavioural Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of NeuroscienceUniversity Medical Center, University of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
- Balgrist University Hospital and University of ZurichZurichSwitzerland
| | - Olivier Hugli
- Emergency Department, University Hospital of Lausanne (UHL)LausanneSwitzerland
| | - Patrik Vuilleumier
- Geneva Neuroscience CenterUniversity of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
- Laboratory of Behavioural Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of NeuroscienceUniversity Medical Center, University of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
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5
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Forkmann K, Wiech K, Schmidt K, Schmid-Köhler J, Bingel U. Neural underpinnings of preferential pain learning and the modulatory role of fear. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:9664-9676. [PMID: 37408110 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Revised: 06/12/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Due to its unique biological relevance, pain-related learning might differ from learning from other aversive experiences. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study compared neural mechanisms underlying the acquisition and extinction of different threats in healthy humans. We investigated whether cue-pain associations are acquired faster and extinguished slower than cue associations with an equally unpleasant tone. Additionally, we studied the modulatory role of stimulus-related fear. Therefore, we used a differential conditioning paradigm, in which somatic heat pain stimuli and unpleasantness-matched auditory stimuli served as US. Our results show stronger acquisition learning for pain- than tone-predicting cues, which was augmented in participants with relatively higher levels of fear of pain. These behavioral findings were paralleled by activation of brain regions implicated in threat processing (insula, amygdala) and personal significance (ventromedial prefrontal cortex). By contrast, extinction learning seemed to be less dependent on the threat value of the US, both on the behavioral and neural levels. Amygdala activity, however, scaled with pain-related fear during extinction learning. Our findings on faster and stronger (i.e. "preferential") pain learning and the role of fear of pain are consistent with the biological relevance of pain and may be relevant to the development or maintenance of chronic pain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katarina Forkmann
- Department of Neurology, Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioural Sciences, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg Essen, Hufelandstraße 55, Essen 45147, Germany
| | - Katja Wiech
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headley Way, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom
| | - Katharina Schmidt
- Department of Neurology, Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioural Sciences, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg Essen, Hufelandstraße 55, Essen 45147, Germany
| | - Julia Schmid-Köhler
- Department of Neurology, Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioural Sciences, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg Essen, Hufelandstraße 55, Essen 45147, Germany
| | - Ulrike Bingel
- Department of Neurology, Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioural Sciences, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg Essen, Hufelandstraße 55, Essen 45147, Germany
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6
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Wang S, Su Q, Qin W, Yu C, Liang M. Both fine-grained and coarse-grained spatial patterns of neural activity measured by functional MRI show preferential encoding of pain in the human brain. Neuroimage 2023; 272:120049. [PMID: 36963739 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2022] [Revised: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 03/21/2023] [Indexed: 03/26/2023] Open
Abstract
How pain emerges from human brain remains an unresolved question in pain neuroscience. Neuroimaging studies have suggested that all brain areas activated by painful stimuli were also activated by tactile stimuli, and vice versa. Nonetheless, pain-preferential spatial patterns of voxel-level activation in the brain have been observed when distinguishing painful and tactile brain activations using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA). According to two hypotheses, the neural activity pattern preferentially encoding pain could exist at a global, coarse-grained, regional level, corresponding to the "pain connectome" hypothesis proposing that pain-preferential information may be encoded by the synchronized activity across multiple distant brain regions, and/or exist at a local, fine-grained, voxel level, corresponding to the "intermingled specialized/preferential neurons" hypothesis proposing that neurons responding specially or preferentially to pain could be present and intermingled with non-pain neurons within a voxel. Here, we systematically investigated the spatial scales of pain-distinguishing information in the human brain measured by fMRI using machine learning techniques, and found that pain-distinguishing information could be detected at both coarse-grained spatial scales across widely distributed brain regions and fine-grained spatial scales within many local areas. Importantly, the spatial distribution of pain-distinguishing information in the brain varies across individuals and such inter-individual variations may be related to a person's trait about pain perception, particularly the pain vigilance and awareness. These results provide new insights into the long-standing question of how pain is represented in the human brain and help the identification of characteristic neuroimaging measurements of pain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sijia Wang
- School of Medical Technology, School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, The Province and Ministry Cosponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China
| | - Qian Su
- Department of Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin's Clinical Research Center for China, Tianjin 300060, China
| | - Wen Qin
- Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China
| | - Chunshui Yu
- School of Medical Technology, School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, The Province and Ministry Cosponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China; Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China
| | - Meng Liang
- School of Medical Technology, School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, The Province and Ministry Cosponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China.
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Zhang LB, Lu XJ, Huang G, Zhang HJ, Tu YH, Kong YZ, Hu L. Selective and replicable neuroimaging-based indicators of pain discriminability. Cell Rep Med 2022; 3:100846. [PMID: 36473465 PMCID: PMC9798031 DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100846] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2022] [Revised: 09/18/2022] [Accepted: 11/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Neural indicators of pain discriminability have far-reaching theoretical and clinical implications but have been largely overlooked previously. Here, to directly identify the neural basis of pain discriminability, we apply signal detection theory to three EEG (Datasets 1-3, total N = 366) and two fMRI (Datasets 4-5, total N = 399) datasets where participants receive transient stimuli of four sensory modalities (pain, touch, audition, and vision) and two intensities (high and low) and report perceptual ratings. Datasets 1 and 4 are used for exploration and others for validation. We find that most pain-evoked EEG and fMRI brain responses robustly encode pain discriminability, which is well replicated in validation datasets. The neural indicators are also pain selective since they cannot track tactile, auditory, or visual discriminability, even though perceptual ratings and sensory discriminability are well matched between modalities. Overall, we provide compelling evidence that pain-evoked brain responses can serve as replicable and selective neural indicators of pain discriminability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li-Bo Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Xue-Jing Lu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Gan Huang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China,Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Hui-Juan Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Yi-Heng Tu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Ya-Zhuo Kong
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China,CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Li Hu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China,Corresponding author
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8
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Young EL, Mista CA, Jure FA, Andersen OK, Biurrun Manresa JA. An analytical method to separate modality-specific and nonspecific sensory components of event-related potentials. Eur J Neurosci 2022; 56:5090-5105. [PMID: 35983754 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15798] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2022] [Revised: 08/12/2022] [Accepted: 08/14/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Several models have been developed to analyse cortical activity in response to salient events constituted by multiple sensory modalities. In particular, additive models compare event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to stimuli from two or more concomitant sensory modalities with the ERPs evoked by unimodal stimuli, in order to study sensory interactions. In this approach, components that are not specific to a sensory modality are commonly disregarded, although they likely carry information about stimulus expectation and evaluation, attentional orientation and other cognitive processes. In this study, we present an analytical method to assess the contribution of modality-specific and nonspecific components to the ERP. We developed an experimental setup that recorded ERPs in response to four stimulus types (visual, auditory, and two somatosensory modalities to test for stimulus specificity) in three different conditions (unimodal, bimodal and trimodal stimulation) and recorded the saliency of these stimuli relative to the sensory background. Stimuli were delivered in pairs, in order to study the effects of habituation. To this end, spatiotemporal features (peak amplitudes and latencies at different scalp locations) were analysed using linear mixed models. Results showed that saliency relative to the sensory background increased with the number of concomitant stimuli. We also observed that the spatiotemporal features of modality-specific components derived from this method likely reflect the amount and type of sensory input. Furthermore, the nonspecific component reflected habituation occurring for the second stimulus in the pair. In conclusion, this method provides an alternative to study neural mechanisms of responses to multisensory stimulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Loreley Young
- Institute for Research and Development in Bioengineering and Bioinformatics (IBB), CONICET-UNER, Oro Verde, Argentina.,Centre for Rehabilitation Engineering and Neuromuscular and Sensory Research (CIRINS), Faculty of Engineering, National University of Entre Ríos, Oro Verde, Argentina
| | - Christian Ariel Mista
- Institute for Research and Development in Bioengineering and Bioinformatics (IBB), CONICET-UNER, Oro Verde, Argentina.,Centre for Rehabilitation Engineering and Neuromuscular and Sensory Research (CIRINS), Faculty of Engineering, National University of Entre Ríos, Oro Verde, Argentina
| | - Fabricio Ariel Jure
- Neurorehabilitation Systems, Department of Health Science and Technology (HST), Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
| | | | - José A Biurrun Manresa
- Institute for Research and Development in Bioengineering and Bioinformatics (IBB), CONICET-UNER, Oro Verde, Argentina.,Centre for Rehabilitation Engineering and Neuromuscular and Sensory Research (CIRINS), Faculty of Engineering, National University of Entre Ríos, Oro Verde, Argentina.,Centre for Neuroplasticity and Pain (CNAP), Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
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Altered Brain Activity and Effective Connectivity within the Nonsensory Cortex during Stimulation of a Latent Myofascial Trigger Point. Neural Plast 2022; 2022:4416672. [PMID: 35992300 PMCID: PMC9391196 DOI: 10.1155/2022/4416672] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2022] [Revised: 05/27/2022] [Accepted: 07/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Myofascial trigger point (MTrP), an iconic characteristic of myofascial pain syndrome (MPS), can induce cerebral cortex changes including altered cortical excitability and connectivity. The corresponding characteristically reactive cortex is still ambiguous. Seventeen participants with latent MTrPs underwent functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to collect cerebral oxygenation hemoglobin (Δ[oxy-Hb]) signals. The Δ[oxy-Hb] signals of the left/right prefrontal cortex (L/R PFC), left/right motor cortex (L/R MC), and left/right occipital lobe (L/R OL) of the subjects were measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in the resting state, nonmyofascial trigger point (NMTrP), state and MTrP state. The data investigated the latent MTrP-induced changes in brain activity and effective connectivity (EC) within the nonsensory cortex. The parameter wavelet amplitude (WA) was used to describe cortical activation, EC to show brain network connectivity, and main coupling direction (mCD) to exhibit the dominant connectivity direction in different frequency bands. An increasing trend of WA and a decreasing trend of EC values were observed in the PFC. The interregional mCD was primarily shifted from a unidirectional to bidirectional connection, especially from PFC to MC or OL, when responding to manual stimulation during the MTrP state compared with resting state and NMTrP state in the intervals III, IV, and V. This study demonstrates that the nonsensory cortex PFC, MC, and OL can participate in the cortical reactions induced by stimulation of a latent MTrP. Additionally, the PFC shows nonnegligible higher activation and weakened regulation than other brain regions. Thus, the PFC may be responsible for the central cortical regulation of a latent MTrP. This trial is registered with ChiCTR2100048433.
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10
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Bassez I, Van de Steen F, Hackl S, Jahn P, Mayr A, Marinazzo D, Schulz E. Investigation on how dynamic effective connectivity patterns encode the fluctuating pain intensity in chronic migraine. NEUROBIOLOGY OF PAIN 2022; 12:100100. [PMID: 36051490 PMCID: PMC9424568 DOI: 10.1016/j.ynpai.2022.100100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2022] [Revised: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 07/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Chronic migraine is characterised by persistent headaches for >15 days per month; the intensity of the pain is fluctuating over time. Here, we explored the dynamic interplay of connectivity patterns between regions known to be related to pain processing and their relation to the ongoing dynamic pain experience. We recorded EEG from 80 sessions (20 chronic migraine patients in 4 separate sessions of 25 min). The patients were asked to continuously rate the intensity of their endogenous headache. On different time-windows, a dynamic causal model (DCM) of cross spectral responses was inverted to estimate connectivity strengths. For each patient and session, the evolving dynamics of effective connectivity were related to pain intensities and to pain intensity changes by using a Bayesian linear model. Hierarchical Bayesian modelling was further used to examine which connectivity-pain relations are consistent across sessions and across patients. The results reflect the multi-facetted clinical picture of the disease. Across all sessions, each patient with chronic migraine exhibited a distinct pattern of pain intensity-related cortical connectivity. The diversity of the individual findings are accompanied by inconsistent relations between the connectivity parameters and pain intensity or pain intensity changes at group level. This suggests a rejection of the idea of a common neuronal core problem for chronic migraine.
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11
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Hou A, Pang X, Zhang X, Peng Y, Li D, Wang H, Zhang Q, Liang M, Gao F. Widespread aberrant functional connectivity throughout the whole brain in obstructive sleep apnea. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:920765. [PMID: 35979339 PMCID: PMC9377518 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.920765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2022] [Accepted: 07/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep-related breathing disorder with high prevalence and is associated with cognitive impairment. Previous neuroimaging studies have reported abnormal brain functional connectivity (FC) in patients with OSA that might contribute to their neurocognitive impairments. However, it is unclear whether patients with OSA have a characteristic pattern of FC changes that can serve as a neuroimaging biomarker for identifying OSA. Methods A total of 21 patients with OSA and 21 healthy controls (HCs) were included in this study and scanned using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The automated anatomical labeling (AAL) atlas was used to divide the cerebrum into 90 regions, and FC between each pair of regions was calculated. Univariate analyses were then performed to detect abnormal FCs in patients with OSA compared with controls, and multivariate pattern analyses (MVPAs) were applied to classify between patients with OSA and controls. Results The univariate comparisons did not detect any significantly altered FC. However, the MVPA showed a successful classification between patients with OSA and controls with an accuracy of 83.33% (p = 0.0001). Furthermore, the selected FCs were associated with nearly all brain regions and widely distributed in the whole brain, both within and between, many resting-state functional networks. Among these selected FCs, 3 were significantly correlated with the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and 2 were significantly correlated with the percentage of time with the saturation of oxygen (SaO2) below 90% of the total sleep time (%TST < 90%). Conclusion There existed widespread abnormal FCs in the whole brain in patients with OSA. This aberrant FC pattern has the potential to serve as a neurological biomarker of OSA, highlighting its importance for understanding the complex neural mechanism underlying OSA and its cognitive impairment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ailin Hou
- College of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Xueming Pang
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Xi Zhang
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Yanmin Peng
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Dongyue Li
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - He Wang
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Quan Zhang
- Department of Radiology, Characteristic Medical Center of Chinese People’s Armed Police Force, Tianjin, China
- *Correspondence: Quan Zhang,
| | - Meng Liang
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
- Meng Liang,
| | - Feng Gao
- College of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biomedical Detecting Techniques and Instruments, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
- Feng Gao,
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12
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Zhao R, Su Q, Song Y, Yang Q, Wang S, Zhang J, Qin W, Yu C, Liang M. Brain-activation-based individual identification reveals individually unique activation patterns elicited by pain and touch. Neuroimage 2022; 260:119436. [PMID: 35788043 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2021] [Revised: 06/28/2022] [Accepted: 06/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Pain is subjective and perceived differently in different people. However, individual differences in pain-elicited brain activations are largely overlooked and often discarded as noises. Here, we used a brain-activation-based individual identification procedure to investigate the uniqueness of the activation patterns within the whole brain or brain regions elicited by nociceptive (laser) and tactile (electrical) stimuli in each of 62 healthy participants. Specifically, brain activation patterns were used as "fingerprints" to identify each individual participant within and across sensory modalities, and individual identification accuracy was calculated to measure each individual's identifiability. We found that individual participants could be successfully identified using their brain activation patterns elicited by nociceptive stimuli, tactile stimuli, or even across modalities. However, different participants had different identifiability; importantly, the within-pain, but not within-touch or cross-modality, individual identifiability obtained from three brain regions (i.e., the left superior frontal gyrus, the middle temporal gyrus and the insular gyrus) were inversely correlated with the scores of Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire (i.e., how a person is alerted to pain) across participants. These results suggest that each individual has a unique pattern of brain responses to nociceptive stimuli which contains both modality-nonspecific and pain-specific information and may be associated with pain-related behaviors shaped by his/her own personal experiences and highlight the importance of a transition from group-level to individual-level characterization of brain activity in neuroimaging studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui Zhao
- School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300070, China; Department of Orthopedics Surgery, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China
| | - Qian Su
- Department of Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin's Clinical Research Center for China, Tianjin 300060, China
| | - YingChao Song
- School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300070, China
| | - QingQing Yang
- School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300070, China; Department of Radiology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang 310009, China
| | - Sijia Wang
- School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300070, China
| | - Juan Zhang
- Department of Prosthodontics, School and Hospital of Stomatology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300070, China
| | - Wen Qin
- Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China
| | - Chunshui Yu
- School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300070, China
| | - Meng Liang
- School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300070, China.
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13
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Berger SE, Baria AT. Assessing Pain Research: A Narrative Review of Emerging Pain Methods, Their Technosocial Implications, and Opportunities for Multidisciplinary Approaches. FRONTIERS IN PAIN RESEARCH 2022; 3:896276. [PMID: 35721658 PMCID: PMC9201034 DOI: 10.3389/fpain.2022.896276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2022] [Accepted: 05/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Pain research traverses many disciplines and methodologies. Yet, despite our understanding and field-wide acceptance of the multifactorial essence of pain as a sensory perception, emotional experience, and biopsychosocial condition, pain scientists and practitioners often remain siloed within their domain expertise and associated techniques. The context in which the field finds itself today-with increasing reliance on digital technologies, an on-going pandemic, and continued disparities in pain care-requires new collaborations and different approaches to measuring pain. Here, we review the state-of-the-art in human pain research, summarizing emerging practices and cutting-edge techniques across multiple methods and technologies. For each, we outline foreseeable technosocial considerations, reflecting on implications for standards of care, pain management, research, and societal impact. Through overviewing alternative data sources and varied ways of measuring pain and by reflecting on the concerns, limitations, and challenges facing the field, we hope to create critical dialogues, inspire more collaborations, and foster new ideas for future pain research methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara E. Berger
- Responsible and Inclusive Technologies Research, Exploratory Sciences Division, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, United States
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14
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Hewitt D, Newton-Fenner A, Henderson J, Fallon NB, Brown C, Stancak A. Intensity-dependent modulation of cortical somatosensory processing during external, low-frequency peripheral nerve stimulation in humans. J Neurophysiol 2022; 127:1629-1641. [PMID: 35611988 PMCID: PMC9190739 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00511.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
External low-frequency peripheral nerve stimulation (LFS) has been proposed as a novel method for neuropathic pain relief. Previous studies have reported that LFS elicits long-term depression-like effects on human pain perception when delivered at noxious intensities, whereas lower intensities are ineffective. To shed light on cortical regions mediating the effects of LFS, we investigated changes in somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs) during four LFS intensities. LFS was applied to the radial nerve (600 pulses, 1 Hz) of 24 healthy participants at perception (1 times), low (5 times), medium (10 times), and high intensities (15 times detection threshold). SEPs were recorded during LFS, and averaged SEPs in 10 consecutive 1-min epochs of LFS were analyzed using source dipole modeling. Changes in resting electroencephalography (EEG) were investigated after each LFS block. Source activity in the midcingulate cortex (MCC) decreased linearly during LFS, with greater attenuation at stronger LFS intensities, and in the ipsilateral operculo-insular cortex during the two lowest LFS stimulus intensities. Increased LFS intensities resulted in greater augmentation of contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex (SI/MI) activity. Stronger LFS intensities were followed by increased α (alpha, 9-11 Hz) band power in SI/MI and decreased θ (theta, 3-5 Hz) band power in MCC. Intensity-dependent attenuation of MCC activity with LFS is consistent with a state of long-term depression. Sustained increases in contralateral SI/MI activity suggests that effects of LFS on somatosensory processing may also be dependent on satiation of SI/MI. Further research could clarify if the activation of SI/MI during LFS competes with nociceptive processing in neuropathic pain.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Somatosensory-evoked potentials during low-frequency stimulation of peripheral nerves were examined at graded stimulus intensities. Low-frequency stimulation was associated with decreased responsiveness in the midcingulate cortex and increased responsiveness in primary sensorimotor cortex. Greater intensities were associated with increased midcingulate cortex θ band power and decreased sensorimotor cortex α band power. Results further previous evidence of an inhibition of somatosensory processing during and after low-frequency stimulation and point toward a potential augmentation of activity in somatosensory processing regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danielle Hewitt
- 1Department of Psychological Sciences, grid.10025.36University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Alice Newton-Fenner
- 1Department of Psychological Sciences, grid.10025.36University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom,2Institute for Risk and Uncertainty, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Jessica Henderson
- 1Department of Psychological Sciences, grid.10025.36University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Nicholas B. Fallon
- 1Department of Psychological Sciences, grid.10025.36University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Christopher Brown
- 1Department of Psychological Sciences, grid.10025.36University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Andrej Stancak
- 1Department of Psychological Sciences, grid.10025.36University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom,2Institute for Risk and Uncertainty, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
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15
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Tinnermann A, Sprenger C, Büchel C. Opioid analgesia alters corticospinal coupling along the descending pain system in healthy participants. eLife 2022; 11:74293. [PMID: 35471139 PMCID: PMC9042228 DOI: 10.7554/elife.74293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2021] [Accepted: 04/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Opioids are potent analgesic drugs with widespread cortical, subcortical, and spinal targets. In particular, the central pain system comprising ascending and descending pain pathways has high opioid receptor densities and is thus crucial for opioid analgesia. Here, we investigated the effects of the opioid remifentanil in a large sample (n = 78) of healthy male participants using combined corticospinal functional MRI. This approach offers the possibility to measure BOLD responses simultaneously in the brain and spinal cord, allowing us to investigate the role of corticospinal coupling in opioid analgesia. Our data show that opioids altered activity in regions involved in pain processing such as somatosensory regions, including the spinal cord and pain modulation such as prefrontal regions. Moreover, coupling strength along the descending pain system, that is, between the anterior cingulate cortex, periaqueductal gray, and spinal cord, was stronger in participants who reported stronger analgesia during opioid treatment while participants that received saline showed reduced coupling when experiencing less pain. These results indicate that coupling along the descending pain pathway is a potential mechanism of opioid analgesia and can differentiate between opioid analgesia and unspecific reductions in pain such as habituation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Tinnermann
- Department for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.,Max Planck School of Cognition, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Christian Sprenger
- Department for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Christian Büchel
- Department for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.,Max Planck School of Cognition, Leipzig, Germany
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16
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Jabakhanji R, Vigotsky AD, Bielefeld J, Huang L, Baliki MN, Iannetti G, Apkarian AV. Limits of decoding mental states with fMRI. Cortex 2022; 149:101-122. [PMID: 35219121 PMCID: PMC9238276 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.12.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2021] [Revised: 11/22/2021] [Accepted: 12/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
A growing number of studies claim to decode mental states using multi-voxel decoders of brain activity. It has been proposed that the fixed, fine-grained, multi-voxel patterns in these decoders are necessary for discriminating between and identifying mental states. Here, we present evidence that the efficacy of these decoders might be overstated. Across various tasks, decoder patterns were spatially imprecise, as decoder performance was unaffected by spatial smoothing; 90% redundant, as selecting a random 10% of a decoder's constituent voxels recovered full decoder performance; and performed similarly to brain activity maps used as decoders. We distinguish decoder performance in discriminating between mental states from performance in identifying a given mental state, and show that even when discrimination performance is adequate, identification can be poor. Finally, we demonstrate that simple and intuitive similarity metrics explain 91% and 62% of discrimination performance within- and across-subjects, respectively. These findings indicate that currently used across-subject decoders of mental states are superfluous and inappropriate for decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rami Jabakhanji
- Department of Neuroscience, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA; Center for Translational Pain Research, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA
| | - Andrew D Vigotsky
- Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Statistics, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA; Center for Translational Pain Research, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA
| | - Jannis Bielefeld
- Department of Neuroscience, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA; Center for Translational Pain Research, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA
| | - Lejian Huang
- Department of Neuroscience, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA; Center for Translational Pain Research, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA
| | - Marwan N Baliki
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA; Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, USA; Center for Translational Pain Research, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA
| | - Giandomenico Iannetti
- Division of Biosciences, University College London, London, UK; Neuroscience and Behaviour Laboratory, Italian Institute of Technology, Rome, Italy
| | - A Vania Apkarian
- Department of Neuroscience, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA; Department of Anesthesiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA; Center for Translational Pain Research, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA.
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17
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Multivariate prediction of pain perception based on pre-stimulus activity. Sci Rep 2022; 12:3199. [PMID: 35217694 PMCID: PMC8881597 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07208-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2021] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The perception of pain is modulated by different processes such as, for example, expectations and attention regarding the upcoming stimulus. Such processes are initiated prior to the actual stimulus and are reflected in ongoing brain activity. Different processes that are by definition also complex in itself are reflected in pre-stimulus activity and therefore the detection of this activity pattern should benefit from a multivariate approach. To identify specific pre-stimulus EEG activity patterns related to subsequent pain perception in humans, we contrasted painful with non-painful sensations delivered at the individual threshold level during EEG measurements. The results of the multivariate EEG analysis revealed a high level of accuracy (group mean 68%) in predicting the pain categorization solely based on pre-stimulus activity. In particular, fronto-central regions and activity in the higher gamma band (60:120 Hz) were of maximal importance for classification. Additional analyses supported the specific role of the pattern of high gamma band activity prior to the stimulus for predicting the behavioral outcome and demonstrated that the informational value embedded in the pre-stimulus activity is nearly as informative as the post-stimulus processing and reflects a specific preparatory state. Further, a close relation between pre- and post-stimulus processing in the high gamma band was observed. These findings support the important role of a multivariate cognitive state prior to stimulus appearance for the emergence of the subjective perception of pain and the functional role of widespread high gamma band activity.
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18
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Ren Q, Yang Y, Wo Y, Lu X, Hu L. Different priming effects of empathy on neural processing associated with firsthand pain and nonpain perception. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2021; 1509:184-202. [PMID: 34877680 DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2021] [Revised: 09/30/2021] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The shared-representation model of empathy is still debated. One of the major questions is whether empathy-eliciting stimuli depicting others' pain selectively activate the representations of self-pain. To address this issue, we assessed the priming effects of empathy-eliciting pictures on firsthand pain and nonpain perception, as well as its associated neural processing. In Experiment 1, when compared with nonpainful pictures depicting individuals' body parts with no injury, participants primed by painful pictures showing individuals' body parts with injury reported higher ratings for perceived intensity, unpleasantness, and salience of nociceptive and auditory stimuli, but they only exhibited increased N2 amplitude in response to nociceptive stimuli. In Experiment 2, the results from another group of participants replicated the observations of Experiment 1 and validated the findings in the non-nociceptive somatosensory modality. Importantly, participants' concern ratings for priming pictures predicted their unpleasantness ratings for subsequent nociceptive stimuli, while participants' attention ratings predicted their unpleasantness ratings for subsequent auditory and tactile stimuli. This finding implies that empathy for pain might influence pain and nonpain perception via different psychological mechanisms. In summary, our findings highlight the existence of pain-selective representations in empathy for pain and contribute to a better understanding of the shared-representation model of empathy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiaoyue Ren
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,General and Experimental Psychology Unit, Department of Psychology, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Ye Yang
- Centre for Mental Health Research in School of Management, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
| | - Ye Wo
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xuejing Lu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Li Hu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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19
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Li L, Di X, Zhang H, Huang G, Zhang L, Liang Z, Zhang Z. Characterization of whole-brain task-modulated functional connectivity in response to nociceptive pain: A multisensory comparison study. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 43:1061-1075. [PMID: 34761468 PMCID: PMC8764484 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25707] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2021] [Revised: 10/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that brain responses to nociceptive pain, non-nociceptive somatosensory, visual, and auditory stimuli are extremely similar. Actually, perception of external sensory stimulation requires complex interactions among distributed cortical and subcortical brain regions. However, the interactions among these regions elicited by nociceptive pain remain unclear, which limits our understanding of mechanisms of pain from a brain network perspective. Task fMRI data were collected with a random sequence of intermixed stimuli of four sensory modalities in 80 healthy subjects. Whole-brain psychophysiological interaction analysis was performed to identify task-modulated functional connectivity (FC) patterns for each modality. Task-modulated FC strength and graph-theoretical-based network properties were compared among the four modalities. Lastly, we performed across-sensory-modality prediction analysis based on the whole-brain task-modulated FC patterns to confirm the specific relationship between brain patterns and sensory modalities. For each sensory modality, task-modulated FC patterns were distributed over widespread brain regions beyond those typically activated or deactivated during the stimulation. As compared with the other three sensory modalities, nociceptive stimulation exhibited significantly different patterns (more widespread and stronger FC within the cingulo-opercular network, between cingulo-opercular and sensorimotor networks, between cingulo-opercular and emotional networks, and between default mode and emotional networks) and global property (smaller modularity). Further, a cross-sensory-modality prediction analysis found that task-modulated FC patterns could predict sensory modality at the subject level successfully. Collectively, these results demonstrated that the whole-brain task-modulated FC is preferentially modulated by pain, thus providing new insights into the neural mechanisms of pain processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linling Li
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.,Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, Shenzhen, China
| | - Xin Di
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey, USA
| | - Huijuan Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Gan Huang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.,Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, Shenzhen, China
| | - Li Zhang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.,Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, Shenzhen, China
| | - Zhen Liang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.,Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, Shenzhen, China
| | - Zhiguo Zhang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.,Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, Shenzhen, China.,Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, China
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20
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Atlas LY. A social affective neuroscience lens on placebo analgesia. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:992-1005. [PMID: 34538720 PMCID: PMC8516707 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.07.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2020] [Revised: 07/28/2021] [Accepted: 07/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Pain is a fundamental experience that promotes survival. In humans, pain stands at the intersection of multiple health crises: chronic pain, the opioid epidemic, and health disparities. The study of placebo analgesia highlights how social, cognitive, and affective processes can directly shape pain, and identifies potential paths for mitigating these crises. This review examines recent progress in the study of placebo analgesia through affective science. It focuses on how placebo effects are shaped by expectations, affect, and the social context surrounding treatment, and discusses neurobiological mechanisms of placebo, highlighting unanswered questions and implications for health. Collaborations between clinicians and social and affective scientists can address outstanding questions and leverage placebo to reduce pain and improve human health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren Y Atlas
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
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21
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Tang J, Su Q, Zhang X, Qin W, Liu H, Liang M, Yu C. Brain Gene Expression Pattern Correlated with the Differential Brain Activation by Pain and Touch in Humans. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:3506-3521. [PMID: 33693675 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2020] [Revised: 01/04/2021] [Accepted: 01/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Genes involved in pain and touch sensations have been studied extensively, but very few studies have tried to link them with neural activities in the brain. Here, we aimed to identify genes preferentially correlated to painful activation patterns by linking the spatial patterns of gene expression of Allen Human Brain Atlas with the pain-elicited neural responses in the human brain, with a parallel, control analysis for identification of genes preferentially correlated to tactile activation patterns. We identified 1828 genes whose expression patterns preferentially correlated to painful activation patterns and 411 genes whose expression patterns preferentially correlated to tactile activation pattern at the cortical level. In contrast to the enrichment for astrocyte and inhibitory synaptic transmission of genes preferentially correlated to tactile activation, the genes preferentially correlated to painful activation were mainly enriched for neuron and opioid- and addiction-related pathways and showed significant overlap with pain-related genes identified in previous studies. These findings not only provide important evidence for the differential genetic architectures of specific brain activation patterns elicited by painful and tactile stimuli but also validate a new approach to studying pain- and touch-related genes more directly from the perspective of neural responses in the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jie Tang
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, P.R. China
| | - Qian Su
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Department of Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin's Clinical Research Center for China, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin 300060, P.R. China
| | - Xue Zhang
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, P.R. China
| | - Wen Qin
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, P.R. China
| | - Huaigui Liu
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, P.R. China
| | - Meng Liang
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300052, P.R. China
| | - Chunshui Yu
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, P.R. China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, P.R. China
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22
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Hewitt D, Byrne A, Henderson J, Newton-Fenner A, Tyson-Carr J, Fallon N, Brown C, Stancak A. Inhibition of cortical somatosensory processing during and after low frequency peripheral nerve stimulation in humans. Clin Neurophysiol 2021; 132:1481-1495. [PMID: 34023628 DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2021.03.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2020] [Revised: 02/25/2021] [Accepted: 03/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Transcutaneous low-frequency stimulation (LFS) elicits long-term depression-like effects on human pain perception. However, the neural mechanisms underlying LFS are poorly understood. We investigated cortical activation changes occurring during LFS and if changes were associated with reduced nociceptive processing and increased amplitude of spontaneous cortical oscillations post-treatment. METHODS LFS was applied to the radial nerve of 25 healthy volunteers over two sessions using active (1 Hz) or sham (0.02 Hz) frequencies. Changes in resting electroencephalography (EEG) and laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) were investigated before and after LFS. Somatosensory-evoked potentials were recorded during LFS and source analysis was carried out. RESULTS Ipsilateral midcingulate and operculo-insular cortex source activity declined linearly during LFS. Active LFS was associated with attenuated long-latency LEP amplitude in ipsilateral frontocentral electrodes and increased resting alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (16-24 Hz) band power in electrodes overlying operculo-insular, sensorimotor and frontal cortical regions. Reduced ipsilateral operculo-insular cortex source activity during LFS correlated with a smaller post-treatment alpha-band power increase. CONCLUSIONS LFS attenuated somatosensory processing both during and after stimulation. SIGNIFICANCE Results further our understanding of the attenuation of somatosensory processing both during and after LFS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danielle Hewitt
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
| | - Adam Byrne
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK; Institute for Risk and Uncertainty, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Jessica Henderson
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Alice Newton-Fenner
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK; Institute for Risk and Uncertainty, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - John Tyson-Carr
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Nicholas Fallon
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Christopher Brown
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Andrej Stancak
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK; Institute for Risk and Uncertainty, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
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23
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Taesler P, Rose M. The modulation of neural insular activity by a brain computer interface differentially affects pain discrimination. Sci Rep 2021; 11:9795. [PMID: 33963226 PMCID: PMC8105353 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-89206-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2020] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The experience of pain is generated by activations throughout a complex pain network with the insular cortex as a central processing area. The state of ongoing oscillatory activity can influence subsequent processing throughout this network. In particular the ongoing theta-band power can be relevant for later pain processing, however a direct functional relation to post-stimulus processing or behaviour is missing. Here, we used a non-invasive brain-computer interface to either increase or decrease ongoing theta-band power originating in the insular cortex. Our results show a differential modulation of oscillatory power and even more important a transfer to independently measured pain processing and sensation. Pain evoked neural power and subjective pain discrimination were differentially affected by the induced modulations of the oscillatory state. The results demonstrate a functional relevance of insular based theta-band oscillatory states for the processing and subjective discrimination of nociceptive stimuli and offer the perspective for clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philipp Taesler
- Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, W34, 20251, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Michael Rose
- Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, W34, 20251, Hamburg, Germany.
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24
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Song Y, Su Q, Yang Q, Zhao R, Yin G, Qin W, Iannetti GD, Yu C, Liang M. Feedforward and feedback pathways of nociceptive and tactile processing in human somatosensory system: A study of dynamic causal modeling of fMRI data. Neuroimage 2021; 234:117957. [PMID: 33744457 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117957] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2020] [Revised: 03/07/2021] [Accepted: 03/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Nociceptive and tactile information is processed in the somatosensory system via reciprocal (i.e., feedforward and feedback) projections between the thalamus, the primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory cortices. The exact hierarchy of nociceptive and tactile information processing within this 'thalamus-S1-S2' network and whether the processing hierarchy differs between the two somatosensory submodalities remains unclear. In particular, two questions related to the ascending and descending pathways have not been addressed. For the ascending pathways, whether tactile or nociceptive information is processed in parallel (i.e., 'thalamus-S1' and 'thalamus-S2') or in serial (i.e., 'thalamus-S1-S2') remains controversial. For the descending pathways, how corticothalamic feedback regulates nociceptive and tactile processing also remains elusive. Here, we aimed to investigate the hierarchical organization for the processing of nociceptive and tactile information in the 'thalamus-S1-S2' network using dynamic causal modeling (DCM) combined with high-temporal-resolution fMRI. We found that, for both nociceptive and tactile information processing, both S1 and S2 received inputs from thalamus, indicating a parallel structure of ascending pathways for nociceptive and tactile information processing. Furthermore, we observed distinct corticothalamic feedback regulations from S1 and S2, showing that S1 generally exerts inhibitory feedback regulation independent of external stimulation whereas S2 provides additional inhibition to the thalamic activity during nociceptive and tactile information processing in humans. These findings revealed that nociceptive and tactile information processing have similar hierarchical organization within the somatosensory system in the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yingchao Song
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Qian Su
- Department of Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin's Clinical Research Center for China, Tianjin, China
| | - Qingqing Yang
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Rui Zhao
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China; Department of Orthopedics Surgery, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China
| | - Guotao Yin
- Department of Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin's Clinical Research Center for China, Tianjin, China
| | - Wen Qin
- Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China
| | - Gian Domenico Iannetti
- Neuroscience and Behaviour Laboratory, Italian Institute of Technology, Rome, Italy; Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Chunshui Yu
- Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Meng Liang
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
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25
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Raabe W, Walk D. Slowly conducting potentials in human sensory nerves. J Neurosci Methods 2020; 351:109045. [PMID: 33358850 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2020.109045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2020] [Revised: 12/13/2020] [Accepted: 12/15/2020] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND In clinical practice, small myelinated sensory fibers, Aδ-fibers, conveying mainly pain and temperature sensations, cannot be examined with available nerve conduction study techniques. Currently, these fibers can only be examined with experimental or very specialized and not commonly available nerve conduction techniques, or only indirectly with cerebral evoked potentials. NEW METHOD This study uses equipment and methods available in clinical neurophysiology laboratories to record from human sensory nerves ≥1000 averaged responses to focal, non-painful stimuli applied by a special electrode to epidermal nerves. The averaged responses to odd numbered stimuli are compared to the averaged responses to even numbered stimuli. An algorithm identifies potentials common in both averages. The 99th and 99.9th percentiles for this algorithm are obtained from control records without stimulation and applied to records with stimulation to identify potentials resulting from stimulation of intraepidermal nerves. RESULTS The algorithm identifies numerous negative and positive potentials as being different from controls at the 99th and 99.9th percentile levels. The conduction velocities of the potentials range from of 1.3-29.9 m/s and are compatible with conduction velocities of Aδ-fibers. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHOD(S) No existing methods. CONCLUSIONS The stimulation, recording and data analysis methods used in this study can be applied in the clinical EMG laboratory to identify Aδ-fibers in human sensory nerves.
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Affiliation(s)
- W Raabe
- Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
| | - D Walk
- Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
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26
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Huang J, Li Y, Xie H, Yang S, Jiang C, Sun W, Li D, Liao Y, Ba X, Xiao L. Abnormal Intrinsic Brain Activity and Neuroimaging-Based fMRI Classification in Patients With Herpes Zoster and Postherpetic Neuralgia. Front Neurol 2020; 11:532110. [PMID: 33192967 PMCID: PMC7642867 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2020.532110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2020] [Accepted: 09/01/2020] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Objective: Neuroimaging studies on neuropathic pain have discovered abnormalities in brain structure and function. However, the brain pattern changes from herpes zoster (HZ) to postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) remain unclear. The present study aimed to compare the brain activity between HZ and PHN patients and explore the potential neural mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment in neuropathic pain patients. Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was carried out among 28 right-handed HZ patients, 24 right-handed PHN patients, and 20 healthy controls (HC), using a 3T MRI system. The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) was analyzed to detect the brain activity of the patients. Correlations between ALFF and clinical pain scales were assessed in two groups of patients. Differences in brain activity between groups were examined and used in a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm for the subjects' classification. Results: Spontaneous brain activity was reduced in both patient groups. Compared with HC, patients from both groups had decreased ALFF in the precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, and middle temporal gyrus. Meanwhile, the neural activities of angular gyrus and middle frontal gyrus were lowered in HZ and PHN patients, respectively. Reduced ALFF in these regions was associated with clinical pain scales in PHN patients only. Using SVM algorithm, the decreased brain activity in these regions allowed for the classification of neuropathic pain patients (HZ and PHN) and HC. Moreover, HZ and PHN patients are also roughly classified by the same model. Conclusion: Our study indicated that mean ALFF values in these pain-related regions can be used as a functional MRI-based biomarker for the classification of subjects with different pain conditions. Altered brain activity might contribute to PHN-induced pain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiabin Huang
- Department of Pain Medicine and Shenzhen Municipal Key Laboratory for Pain Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Union Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China
| | - Yongxin Li
- Formula-Pattern Research Center, School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Huijun Xie
- Formula-Pattern Research Center, School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Shaomin Yang
- Department of Pain Medicine and Shenzhen Municipal Key Laboratory for Pain Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Union Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China
| | - Changyu Jiang
- Department of Pain Medicine and Shenzhen Municipal Key Laboratory for Pain Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Union Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China
| | - Wuping Sun
- Department of Pain Medicine and Shenzhen Municipal Key Laboratory for Pain Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Union Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China
| | - Disen Li
- Department of Pain Medicine and Shenzhen Municipal Key Laboratory for Pain Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Union Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China
| | - Yuliang Liao
- Department of Pain Medicine and Shenzhen Municipal Key Laboratory for Pain Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Union Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China
| | - Xiyuan Ba
- Department of Pain Medicine and Shenzhen Municipal Key Laboratory for Pain Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Union Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China
| | - Lizu Xiao
- Department of Pain Medicine and Shenzhen Municipal Key Laboratory for Pain Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Union Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China
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27
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Prediction of mediastinal lymph node metastasis based on 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging using support vector machine in non-small cell lung cancer. Eur Radiol 2020; 31:3983-3992. [PMID: 33201286 DOI: 10.1007/s00330-020-07466-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2020] [Revised: 10/22/2020] [Accepted: 11/04/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to develop a classification method based on support vector machine (SVM) to improve the diagnostic performance of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) to detect the lymph node (LN) metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHOD Two hundred nineteen lymph nodes (37 metastatic) from 71 patients were evaluated in this study. SVM models were developed with 7 LN features. The area under the curve (AUC) and accuracy of 9 models were compared to select the best model. The best SVM model was simplified on the basis of the feature weights and value distribution to further suit the clinical application. RESULTS The maximum, minimum, and mean accuracy of the best model was 91.89% (68/74, 95% CI 83.11~96.54%), 66.22% (49/74, 95% CI 54.85~75.98%), and 80.09% (59,266/74,000, 95% CI 70.27~89.19%), respectively, with an AUC of 0.94, 0.66, and 0.81, respectively. The best SVM model was finally simplified into a score rule: LNs with scores more than 3.0 were considered as malignant ones, whereas LNs with scores less than 1.5 tended to be benign ones. For the LNs with scores within a range of 1.5-3.0, metastasis was suspected. CONCLUSION An SVM model based on 18F-FDG PET/CT images was able to predict the metastatic LNs for patients with NSCLC. The ratio of the maximum of standard uptake value of LNs to aortic arch played a major role in the model. After simplification, the model could be transferred into a scoring method which may partly help clinicians determine the clinical staging of patients with NSCLC relatively easier. KEY POINTS • The SVM model based on 18F-FDG PET/CT features may help clinicians to make a decision for metastatic mediastinal lymph nodes in patients with NSCLC. • The SURblood plays a major role in the SVM model. • The score rule based on the SVM model simplified the complexity of the model and may partly help clinicians determine the clinical staging of patients with NSCLC relatively easier.
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28
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Su Q, Song Y, Zhao R, Liang M. A review on the ongoing quest for a pain signature in the human brain. BRAIN SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020. [DOI: 10.26599/bsa.2019.9050024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Developing an objective biomarker for pain assessment is crucial for understanding neural coding mechanisms of pain in the human brain as well as for effective treatment of pain disorders. Neuroimaging techniques have been proven to be powerful tools in the ongoing quest for a pain signature in the human brain. Although there is still a long way to go before achieving a truly successful pain signature based on neuroimaging techniques, important progresses have been made through great efforts in the last two decades by the Pain Society. Here, we focus on neural responses to transient painful stimuli in healthy people, and review the relevant studies on the identification of a neuroimaging signature for pain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Su
- Department of Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin’s Clinical Research Center for China, Tianjin 300060, China
- These authors contributed equally to this work
| | - Yingchao Song
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China
- These authors contributed equally to this work
| | - Rui Zhao
- Department of Orthopedics Surgery, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China
| | - Meng Liang
- School of Medical Imaging and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China
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29
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Abstract
People often experience two types of pain: social pain and physical pain. The former is related to psychological distance from other people or social groups, whereas the latter is associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Social pain caused by interpersonal interactions causes negative feelings in individuals and has negative consequences to the same degree as physical pain. Various studies have shown an interaction between social pain and physical pain, not only in behavioral performance but also in activities within shared neural regions. Accordingly, the present paper reviews: (1) the interaction between social pain and physical pain in individuals’ behavioral performances; and (2) the overlap in neural circuitry as regards the processing of social pain and physical pain. Understanding the relationship between social pain and physical pain might provide new insights into the nature of these two types of pain, and thus may further contribute to the treatment of illnesses associated with both types of painful experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ming Zhang
- Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Yuqi Zhang
- Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Yazhuo Kong
- Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
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30
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Geuter S, Reynolds Losin EA, Roy M, Atlas LY, Schmidt L, Krishnan A, Koban L, Wager TD, Lindquist MA. Multiple Brain Networks Mediating Stimulus-Pain Relationships in Humans. Cereb Cortex 2020; 30:4204-4219. [PMID: 32219311 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The brain transforms nociceptive input into a complex pain experience comprised of sensory, affective, motivational, and cognitive components. However, it is still unclear how pain arises from nociceptive input and which brain networks coordinate to generate pain experiences. We introduce a new high-dimensional mediation analysis technique to estimate distributed, network-level patterns that formally mediate the relationship between stimulus intensity and pain. We applied the model to a large-scale analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data (N = 284), focusing on brain mediators of the relationship between noxious stimulus intensity and trial-to-trial variation in pain reports. We identify mediators in both traditional nociceptive pathways and in prefrontal, midbrain, striatal, and default-mode regions unrelated to nociception in standard analyses. The whole-brain mediators are specific for pain versus aversive sounds and are organized into five functional networks. Brain mediators predicted pain ratings better than previous brain measures, including the neurologic pain signature (Wager et al. 2013). Our results provide a broader view of the networks underlying pain experience, as well as novel brain targets for interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephan Geuter
- Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.,Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.,Vorwerk International & Co. KmG, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | - Mathieu Roy
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Lauren Y Atlas
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.,National Center on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.,National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Liane Schmidt
- Control-Interoception-Attention Team, Institute du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, INSERM UMR 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
| | - Anjali Krishnan
- Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY, USA
| | - Leonie Koban
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.,Control-Interoception-Attention Team, Institute du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, INSERM UMR 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne University, Paris, France.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.,Marketing Area, INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France
| | - Tor D Wager
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.,Presidential Cluster in Neuroscience and Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Martin A Lindquist
- Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
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31
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Lee IS, Necka EA, Atlas LY. Distinguishing pain from nociception, salience, and arousal: How autonomic nervous system activity can improve neuroimaging tests of specificity. Neuroimage 2020; 204:116254. [PMID: 31604122 PMCID: PMC6911655 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2019] [Revised: 10/04/2019] [Accepted: 10/07/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Pain is a subjective, multidimensional experience that is distinct from nociception. A large body of work has focused on whether pain processing is supported by specific, dedicated brain circuits. Despite advances in human neuroscience and neuroimaging analysis, dissociating acute pain from other sensations has been challenging since both pain and non-pain stimuli evoke salience and arousal responses throughout the body and in overlapping brain circuits. In this review, we discuss these challenges and propose that brain-body interactions in pain can be leveraged in order to improve tests for pain specificity. We review brain and bodily responses to pain and nociception and extant efforts toward identifying pain-specific brain networks. We propose that autonomic nervous system activity should be used as a surrogate measure of salience and arousal to improve these efforts and enable researchers to parse out pain-specific responses in the brain, and demonstrate the feasibility of this approach using example fMRI data from a thermal pain paradigm. This new approach will improve the accuracy and specificity of functional neuroimaging analyses and help to overcome current difficulties in assessing pain specific responses in the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- In-Seon Lee
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Elizabeth A Necka
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Lauren Y Atlas
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
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32
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Zheng W, Woo CW, Yao Z, Goldstein P, Atlas LY, Roy M, Schmidt L, Krishnan A, Jepma M, Hu B, Wager TD. Pain-Evoked Reorganization in Functional Brain Networks. Cereb Cortex 2019; 30:2804-2822. [PMID: 31813959 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhz276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2019] [Revised: 10/21/2019] [Accepted: 10/27/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent studies indicate that a significant reorganization of cerebral networks may occur in patients with chronic pain, but how immediate pain experience influences the organization of large-scale functional networks is not yet well characterized. To investigate this question, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging in 106 participants experiencing both noxious and innocuous heat. Painful stimulation caused network-level reorganization of cerebral connectivity that differed substantially from organization during innocuous stimulation and standard resting-state networks. Noxious stimuli increased somatosensory network connectivity with (a) frontoparietal networks involved in context representation, (b) "ventral attention network" regions involved in motivated action selection, and (c) basal ganglia and brainstem regions. This resulted in reduced "small-worldness," modularity (fewer networks), and global network efficiency and in the emergence of an integrated "pain supersystem" (PS) whose activity predicted individual differences in pain sensitivity across 5 participant cohorts. Network hubs were reorganized ("hub disruption") so that more hubs were localized in PS, and there was a shift from "connector" hubs linking disparate networks to "provincial" hubs connecting regions within PS. Our findings suggest that pain reorganizes the network structure of large-scale brain systems. These changes may prioritize responses to painful events and provide nociceptive systems privileged access to central control of cognition and action during pain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weihao Zheng
- School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, P. R. China.,Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P. R. China
| | - Choong-Wan Woo
- Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
| | - Zhijun Yao
- School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, P. R. China
| | - Pavel Goldstein
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.,Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.,The School of Public Health, University of Haifa, Haifa, 3498838, Israel
| | - Lauren Y Atlas
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.,National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.,National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA
| | - Mathieu Roy
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec H3A 0G4, Canada
| | - Liane Schmidt
- Control-Interoception-Attention (CIA) team, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM), Sorbonne University / CNRS / INSERM, 75013 Paris, France
| | - Anjali Krishnan
- Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY 11210, USA
| | - Marieke Jepma
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1018 WS, The Netherlands
| | - Bin Hu
- School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, P. R. China
| | - Tor D Wager
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.,Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.,Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
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33
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Horing B, Sprenger C, Büchel C. The parietal operculum preferentially encodes heat pain and not salience. PLoS Biol 2019; 17:e3000205. [PMID: 31404058 PMCID: PMC6705876 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2019] [Revised: 08/22/2019] [Accepted: 07/18/2019] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Substantial controversy exists as to which part of brain activity is genuinely attributable to pain-related percepts and which activity is due to general aspects of sensory stimulation, such as its salience, or the accompanying arousal. The challenge posed by this question rests largely in the fact that pain per se exhibits highly intense but unspecific characteristics. These therefore should be matched by potential control conditions. Here, we used a unique combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral and autonomic measures to address this longstanding debate in pain research. Subjects rated perceived intensity in a sequence alternating between heat and sound stimuli. Neuronal activity was monitored using fMRI. Either modality was presented in 6 different intensities, 3 of which lay above the pain threshold (for heat) or the unpleasantness threshold (for sound). We performed our analysis on 26 volunteers in which psychophysiological responses (as per skin conductance responses [SCRs]) did not differ between the 2 stimulus modalities. Having thus ascertained a comparable amount of stimulation-related but unspecific activation, we analyzed stimulus-response functions (SRFs) after painful stimulation and contrasted them with those of the matched acoustic control condition. Furthermore, analysis of fMRI data was performed on the brain surface to circumvent blurring issues stemming from the close proximity of several regions of interest located in heavily folded cortical areas. We focused our analyses on insular and peri-insular regions that are strongly involved in processing of painful stimuli. We employed an axiomatic approach to determine areas showing higher activation in painful compared to nonpainful heat and, at the same time, showing a steeper SRF for painful heat compared to unpleasant sound. Intriguingly, an area in the posterior parietal operculum emerged, whose response showed a pain preference after satisfying all axiomatic constraints. This result has important implications for the interpretation of functional imaging findings in pain research, because it clearly demonstrates that there are areas where activity following painful stimulation is not due to general attributes or results of sensory stimulation, such as salience or arousal. Conversely, several areas did not conform to the formulated axioms to rule out general factors as explanations. The brain activity detected during pain could be due merely to the fact that pain is arousing and attention-grabbing, rather than being directly attributable to the pain itself. This study identifies an area of the brain — the parietal operculum — whose activity can only be explained by the painfulness of pain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Björn Horing
- Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Christian Sprenger
- Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Christian Büchel
- Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
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