MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, UK; Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK; Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK.
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, UK.
Neuroimage. 2020 Nov 1;221:117178. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117178. Epub 2020 Jul 22.
Functional neuroimaging techniques have provided great insight in the field of pain. Utilising these techniques, we have characterised pain-induced responses in the brain and improved our understanding of key pain-related phenomena. Despite the utility of these methods, there remains a need to assess the test retest reliability of pain modulated blood-oxygen-level-dependant (BOLD) MR signal across repeated sessions. This is especially the case for more novel yet increasingly implemented stimulation modalities, such as noxious pressure, and it is acutely important for multi-session studies considering treatment efficacy. In the present investigation, BOLD signal responses were estimated for noxious-pressure stimulation in a group of healthy participants, across two separate sessions. Test retest reliability of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and self-reported visual analogue scale measures were determined by the intra-class correlation coefficient. High levels of reliability were observed in several key brain regions known to underpin the pain experience, including in the thalamus, insula, somatosensory cortices, and inferior frontal regions, alongside "excellent" reliability of self-reported pain measures. These data demonstrate that BOLD-fMRI derived signals are a valuable tool for quantifying noxious responses pertaining to pressure stimulation. We further recommend the implementation of pressure as a stimulation modality in experimental applications.
功能神经影像学技术在疼痛领域提供了深刻的见解。利用这些技术，我们描述了大脑中疼痛引起的反应，提高了我们对关键疼痛相关现象的理解。尽管这些方法很有用，但仍需要评估在重复的治疗过程中，疼痛调节的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）MR 信号的测试-重测信度。对于更新颖但越来越多的刺激方式，如有害压力，情况尤其如此，对于考虑治疗效果的多疗程研究来说，这一点至关重要。在本研究中，我们在两组健康参与者中估计了有害压力刺激的 BOLD 信号反应，共进行了两次单独的治疗。功能磁共振成像（fMRI）数据和自我报告的视觉模拟量表测量的测试-重测信度通过组内相关系数确定。在已知与疼痛体验有关的几个关键脑区，包括丘脑、脑岛、躯体感觉皮层和下额区域，观察到了高可靠性的 fMRI 数据，同时自我报告的疼痛测量也具有“极好”的可靠性。这些数据表明，BOLD-fMRI 衍生的信号是量化与压力刺激相关的有害反应的一种有价值的工具。我们进一步建议在实验应用中采用压力作为刺激方式。
