Abnormal functional neurocircuitry underpinning emotional processing in fibromyalgia

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition often linked with emotional difficulties.
• Understanding the neural basis of emotion processing in fibromyalgia is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate brain activation and functional connectivity during emotional stimulus processing in fibromyalgia patients.
• To explore the relationship between brain activity, functional connectivity, and psychological symptoms in fibromyalgia.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan 30 female fibromyalgia patients and 31 healthy controls (HC).
• Participants completed psychometric tests for alexithymia, mood, depression, and anxiety.
• An emotion processing and regulation task was performed during fMRI, with data analyzed using ANCOVA and generalized psychophysiological interaction (PPI).

Main Results:

• Fibromyalgia patients exhibited greater activation in the left superior lateral occipital cortex during emotion processing compared to HC.
• An interaction effect between stimulus valence and group was observed in the functional connectivity between the left pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) and regions including the precentral cortex, postcentral cortex, central operculum, and premotor cortex.

Conclusions:

• Abnormalities in brain activation and functional connectivity during emotion processing are present in fibromyalgia.
• These neural alterations may contribute to the high prevalence of psychopathological symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, in fibromyalgia patients.