May Arne, Schulte Laura Helene, Nolte Guido, Mehnert Jan
Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany.
Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany.
Brain Sci. 2020 Sep 2;10(9):603. doi: 10.3390/brainsci10090603.
Imaging studies help us understand the important role of brainstem and midbrain regions in human trigeminal pain processing without solving the question of how these regions actually interact. In the current study, we describe this connectivity and its dynamics during nociception with a novel analytical approach called Partial Similarity (PS). We developed PS specifically to estimate the communication between individual hubs of the network in contrast to the overall communication within that network. Partial Similarity works on trial-to-trial variance of neuronal activity acquired with functional magnetic resonance imaging. It discovers direct communication between two hubs considering the remainder of the network as confounds. A similar method to PS is Representational Similarity, which works with ordinary correlations and does not consider any external influence on the communication between two hubs. Particularly the combination of Representational Similarity and Partial Similarity analysis unravels brainstem dynamics involved in trigeminal pain using the spinal trigeminal nucleus (STN)-the first relay station of peripheral trigeminal input-as a seed region. The combination of both methods can be valuable tools in discovering the network dynamics in fMRI and an important instrument for future insight into the nature of various neurological diseases like primary headaches.
影像学研究有助于我们理解脑干和中脑区域在人类三叉神经痛处理中的重要作用，但并未解决这些区域实际如何相互作用的问题。在当前研究中，我们使用一种名为部分相似性（PS）的新型分析方法描述了伤害感受过程中的这种连接性及其动态变化。我们专门开发PS来估计网络中各个枢纽之间的通信，这与该网络内的整体通信形成对比。部分相似性基于通过功能磁共振成像获取的神经元活动的逐次试验方差进行工作。它在将网络的其余部分视为混杂因素的情况下，发现两个枢纽之间的直接通信。与PS类似的方法是表征相似性，它基于普通相关性进行工作，并且不考虑对两个枢纽之间通信的任何外部影响。特别是，表征相似性和部分相似性分析的结合，以脊髓三叉神经核（STN）——外周三叉神经输入的第一中继站——作为种子区域，揭示了三叉神经痛所涉及的脑干动态变化。这两种方法的结合可能是发现功能磁共振成像中网络动态变化的有价值工具，也是未来深入了解原发性头痛等各种神经系统疾病本质的重要手段。
