Howard Florey Institute, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
Neurobiol Aging. 2010 Mar;31(3):494-503. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.04.012. Epub 2008 May 29.
Compared with young adults, older people report more chronic pain complaints, and show reduced tolerance to experimental pain. Atrophy of brain parenchyma in normal ageing is well documented, with grey matter reduction occurring across many regions known to be involved in pain processing. However, the functional consequences of these changes, in particular their contribution toward age-related differences in pain perception and report, are yet to be elucidated. The present study investigated the effects of ageing on supraspinal pain processing by comparing regional brain responses to noxious pressure stimulation in 15 young (aged 26+/-3 years) and 15 older (aged 79+/-4 years) adults. Both groups showed significant pain-related activity in a common network of areas including the insula, cingulate, posterior parietal and somatosensory cortices. However, compared with older adults, young subjects showed significantly greater activity in the contralateral putamen and caudate, which could not be accounted for by increased age-associated shrinkage in these regions. The age-related difference in pain-evoked activity seen in the present study may reflect reduced functioning of striatal pain modulatory mechanisms with advancing age.
与年轻人相比，老年人报告的慢性疼痛投诉更多，对实验性疼痛的耐受性降低。正常衰老过程中脑实质的萎缩已有充分的记录，灰质减少发生在许多已知与疼痛处理有关的区域。然而，这些变化的功能后果，特别是它们对与年龄相关的疼痛感知和报告差异的贡献，仍有待阐明。本研究通过比较 15 名年轻（年龄 26+/-3 岁）和 15 名老年（年龄 79+/-4 岁）成年人对有害压力刺激的区域脑反应，研究了年龄对脊髓以上疼痛处理的影响。两组在包括岛叶、扣带回、后顶叶和体感皮层在内的共同网络中都表现出明显的与疼痛相关的活动。然而，与老年人相比，年轻受试者在对侧壳核和尾状核中表现出明显更大的活动，而这些区域的年龄相关性萎缩并不能解释这种差异。本研究中观察到的疼痛诱发活动的年龄相关差异可能反映了随着年龄的增长，纹状体疼痛调节机制的功能降低。
