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Simultaneous fMRI-PET of the opioidergic pain system in human brain

Hsiao-Ying Wey1, Ciprian Catana1, Jacob M Hooker1

  • 1Athinoula A Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.

Neuroimage
|August 10, 2014
PubMed

Insights

Simultaneous functional MRI-PET imaging reveals that pain activates opioid neurotransmission in the thalamus and striatum. This study links neurochemical events to hemodynamic responses, advancing brain imaging research.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Medical Imaging
  • Neurochemistry

Background:

  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) offer complementary insights into brain function.
  • While simultaneous MRI/PET has shown clinical potential, its ability to dissect neurochemically distinct components of the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) signal remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the biological relevance of concurrent functional MRI-PET imaging.
  • To determine if simultaneous fMRI-PET can dissect neurochemically distinct components of the BOLD fMRI signal.
  • To explore the relationship between endogenous opioid release and hemodynamic responses during pain.

Main Methods:

  • Acquired 16 fMRI-PET datasets from 8 healthy volunteers undergoing randomized pain and control scans.
  • Utilized dynamic PET with the opioid radioligand [(11)C]diprenorphine to measure endogenous opioid release.
  • Collected simultaneous BOLD fMRI data to capture hemodynamic responses during pain and control conditions.

Main Results:

  • Identified co-localized BOLD fMRI and [(11)C]diprenorphine PET signal changes in the thalamus and striatum during pain processing.
  • Observed a positive correlation between co-localized fMRI and PET signal changes in the thalamus.
  • Demonstrated modality-specific brain network activations alongside co-localized responses.

Conclusions:

  • Simultaneous fMRI-PET successfully links pain-induced opioid neurotransmission to hemodynamic activation in specific brain regions.
  • Findings suggest that endogenous opioid activity significantly contributes to the fMRI BOLD signal in the thalamus during pain.
  • This technique offers a powerful tool for in vivo investigation of neurotransmission's impact on neurovascular coupling in the human brain.
Keywords:
Hemodynamic responseNeurotransmissionOpioid receptorPainSimultaneous MRI/PET

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