Brain Research Unit and Advanced Magnetic Imaging Centre, Low Temperature Laboratory, Aalto University School of Science and Technology, FI-00076 Espoo, Finland.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Apr 6;107(14):6493-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1001504107. Epub 2010 Mar 22.
In the absence of external stimuli, human hemodynamic brain activity displays slow intrinsic variations. To find out whether such fluctuations would be altered by persistent pain, we asked 10 patients with unrelenting chronic pain of different etiologies and 10 sex- and age-matched control subjects to rest with eyes open during 3-T functional MRI. Independent component analysis was used to identify functionally coupled brain networks. Time courses of an independent component comprising the insular cortices of both hemispheres showed stronger spectral power at 0.12 to 0.25 Hz in patients than in control subjects, with the largest difference at 0.16 Hz. A similar but weaker effect was seen in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas activity of the precuneus and early visual cortex, used as a control site, did not differ between the groups. In the patient group, seed point-based correlation analysis revealed altered spatial connectivity between insulae and anterior cingulate cortex. The results imply both temporally and spatially aberrant activity of the affective pain-processing areas in patients suffering from chronic pain. The accentuated 0.12- to 0.25-Hz fluctuations in the patient group might be related to altered activity of the autonomic nervous system.
在没有外部刺激的情况下，人类的血流动力学大脑活动会显示出缓慢的内在变化。为了了解持续的疼痛是否会改变这种波动，我们要求 10 名患有不同病因的持续慢性疼痛的患者和 10 名性别和年龄匹配的对照者在 3T 功能磁共振成像期间睁眼休息。独立成分分析用于识别功能耦合的大脑网络。由两个半球的脑岛组成的独立成分的时间过程显示，患者的 0.12 到 0.25 Hz 之间的频谱功率比对照者更强，在 0.16 Hz 时差异最大。在前扣带皮层中也观察到类似但较弱的效应，而作为对照部位的楔前叶和早期视觉皮层的活动在两组之间没有差异。在患者组中，基于种子点的相关分析显示，脑岛和前扣带皮层之间的空间连接发生了改变。这些结果意味着患有慢性疼痛的患者的情感疼痛处理区域在时间和空间上都存在异常活动。患者组中 0.12 到 0.25 Hz 的增强波动可能与自主神经系统活动的改变有关。
