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Intrinsic Brain Connectivity in Chronic Pain: A Resting-State fMRI Study in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is commonly accompanied by pain that is discordant with the degree of peripheral pathology. Very little is known about the cerebral processes involved in pain processing in RA. Here we investigated resting-state brain connectivity associated with prolonged pain...

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Autores principales: Flodin, Pär, Martinsen, Sofia, Altawil, Reem, Waldheim, Eva, Lampa, Jon, Kosek, Eva, Fransson, Peter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4791375/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27014038
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00107
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author Flodin, Pär
Martinsen, Sofia
Altawil, Reem
Waldheim, Eva
Lampa, Jon
Kosek, Eva
Fransson, Peter
author_facet Flodin, Pär
Martinsen, Sofia
Altawil, Reem
Waldheim, Eva
Lampa, Jon
Kosek, Eva
Fransson, Peter
author_sort Flodin, Pär
collection PubMed
description Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is commonly accompanied by pain that is discordant with the degree of peripheral pathology. Very little is known about the cerebral processes involved in pain processing in RA. Here we investigated resting-state brain connectivity associated with prolonged pain in RA. Methods: 24 RA subjects and 19 matched controls were compared with regard to both behavioral measures of pain perception and resting-resting state fMRI data acquired subsequently to fMRI sessions involving pain stimuli. The resting-state fMRI brain connectivity was investigated using 159 seed regions located in cardinal pain processing brain regions. Additional principal component based multivariate pattern analysis of the whole brain connectivity pattern was carried out in a data driven analysis to localize group differences in functional connectivity. Results: When RA patients were compared to controls, we observed significantly lower pain resilience for pressure on the affected finger joints (i.e., P50-joint) and an overall heightened level of perceived global pain in RA patients. Relative to controls, RA patients displayed increased brain connectivity predominately for the supplementary motor areas, mid-cingulate cortex, and the primary sensorimotor cortex. Additionally, we observed an increase in brain connectivity between the insula and prefrontal cortex as well as between anterior cingulate cortex and occipital areas for RA patients. None of the group differences in brain connectivity were significantly correlated with behavioral parameters. Conclusion: Our study provides experimental evidence of increased connectivity between frontal midline regions that are implicated in affective pain processing and bilateral sensorimotor regions in RA patients.
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spelling pubmed-47913752016-03-24 Intrinsic Brain Connectivity in Chronic Pain: A Resting-State fMRI Study in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Flodin, Pär Martinsen, Sofia Altawil, Reem Waldheim, Eva Lampa, Jon Kosek, Eva Fransson, Peter Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is commonly accompanied by pain that is discordant with the degree of peripheral pathology. Very little is known about the cerebral processes involved in pain processing in RA. Here we investigated resting-state brain connectivity associated with prolonged pain in RA. Methods: 24 RA subjects and 19 matched controls were compared with regard to both behavioral measures of pain perception and resting-resting state fMRI data acquired subsequently to fMRI sessions involving pain stimuli. The resting-state fMRI brain connectivity was investigated using 159 seed regions located in cardinal pain processing brain regions. Additional principal component based multivariate pattern analysis of the whole brain connectivity pattern was carried out in a data driven analysis to localize group differences in functional connectivity. Results: When RA patients were compared to controls, we observed significantly lower pain resilience for pressure on the affected finger joints (i.e., P50-joint) and an overall heightened level of perceived global pain in RA patients. Relative to controls, RA patients displayed increased brain connectivity predominately for the supplementary motor areas, mid-cingulate cortex, and the primary sensorimotor cortex. Additionally, we observed an increase in brain connectivity between the insula and prefrontal cortex as well as between anterior cingulate cortex and occipital areas for RA patients. None of the group differences in brain connectivity were significantly correlated with behavioral parameters. Conclusion: Our study provides experimental evidence of increased connectivity between frontal midline regions that are implicated in affective pain processing and bilateral sensorimotor regions in RA patients. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-03-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4791375/ /pubmed/27014038 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00107 Text en Copyright © 2016 Flodin, Martinsen, Altawil, Waldheim, Lampa, Kosek and Fransson. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Flodin, Pär
Martinsen, Sofia
Altawil, Reem
Waldheim, Eva
Lampa, Jon
Kosek, Eva
Fransson, Peter
Intrinsic Brain Connectivity in Chronic Pain: A Resting-State fMRI Study in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
title Intrinsic Brain Connectivity in Chronic Pain: A Resting-State fMRI Study in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
title_full Intrinsic Brain Connectivity in Chronic Pain: A Resting-State fMRI Study in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
title_fullStr Intrinsic Brain Connectivity in Chronic Pain: A Resting-State fMRI Study in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
title_full_unstemmed Intrinsic Brain Connectivity in Chronic Pain: A Resting-State fMRI Study in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
title_short Intrinsic Brain Connectivity in Chronic Pain: A Resting-State fMRI Study in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
title_sort intrinsic brain connectivity in chronic pain: a resting-state fmri study in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4791375/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27014038
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00107
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