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Abstract
BackgroundRecent functional imaging studies on chronic pain of various organic etiologies have shown significant alterations in both the spatial and the temporal dimensions of the functional connectivity of the human brain in its resting state. However, it remains unclear whether similar changes in intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) also occur in patients with chronic pain disorder, defined as persistent, medically unexplained pain.MethodsWe compared 21 patients who suffered from chronic pain disorder with 19 age- and gender-matched controls using 3T-fMRI. All neuroimaging data were analyzed using both independent component analysis (ICA) and power spectra analysis.ResultsIn patients suffering from chronic pain disorder, the fronto-insular ‘salience’ network (FIN) and the anterior default mode network (aDMN) predominantly oscillated at higher frequencies (0.20 - 0.24 Hz), whereas no significant differences were observed in the posterior DMN (pDMN) and the sensorimotor network (SMN).ConclusionsOur results indicate that chronic pain disorder may be a self-sustaining and endogenous mental process that affects temporal organization in terms of a frequency shift in the rhythmical dynamics of cortical networks associated with emotional homeostasis and introspection.
Highlights
Recent functional imaging studies on chronic pain of various organic etiologies have shown significant alterations in both the spatial and the temporal dimensions of the functional connectivity of the human brain in its resting state
All patients suffering from chronic pain disorder experienced pain throughout the fMRI scan
No relevant correlation was observed between the level of clinical pain (BPI, item 5) and the level of depression (R = − 0.01, p = 0.996) or the level of anxiety (R = 0.083, p = 0.736)
Summary
Recent functional imaging studies on chronic pain of various organic etiologies have shown significant alterations in both the spatial and the temporal dimensions of the functional connectivity of the human brain in its resting state. It remains unclear whether similar changes in intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) occur in patients with chronic pain disorder, defined as persistent, medically unexplained pain. In addition to studies concerning morphology and paradigm-based activations, the temporal dimension of neural processing has recently gained attention [7,8,9] This dynamic view of brain functioning emphasizes the importance of the functional interplay between different brain regions, with a particular focus placed on altered resting state connectivity in mental disorders [10]. Chronic pain influenced the temporal aspects of functional connectivity by changing the frequency of the rhythmic oscillations in the BOLD-signal within the FIN from lower levels (below 0.12 Hz) to a higher range
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