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Abnormal Intrinsic Functional Interactions Within Pain Network in Cervical Discogenic Pain
Hong Zhang1, Dongqin Xia2, Xiaoping Wu1
1Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Xi'an Central Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Frontiers in Neuroscience
|May 3, 2021
Summary
Cervical discogenic pain alters brain connectivity. Patients showed increased connections between the posterior insula and thalamus, and decreased connections with the middle cingulate cortex, impacting pain perception.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Pain Research
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Cervical discogenic pain (CDP) stems from cervical disc degeneration.
- The precise modulation of pain network functional interactions by CDP is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate alterations in resting-state functional connectivity within the pain network in individuals with CDP.
- To explore the relationship between altered functional connectivity and clinical pain measures.
Main Methods:
- Resting-state functional connectivity analysis using posterior insula (PI) as seeds in 40 CDP patients and 40 healthy controls.
- Whole-brain and seed-to-target analyses to compare functional connectivity between groups.
- Correlation analysis between functional connectivity and visual analog scale (VAS) scores.
Main Results:
- CDP patients exhibited increased functional connectivity between the posterior insula (PI) and thalamus (THA).
- Decreased functional connectivity was observed between PI and the middle cingulate cortex (MCC) in CDP patients.
- Specific connections, such as right PI-left THA and left postcentral gyrus (PoCG)-MCC, correlated with pain intensity (VAS).
Conclusions:
- Findings reveal distinct patterns of altered functional connectivity in the pain network associated with CDP.
- These neural modulations provide insights into the underlying mechanisms of cervical discogenic pain.
- The study highlights potential imaging biomarkers for CDP.
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