You Beibei, Jackson Todd
Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, China Education Ministry, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China; Qiannan Preschool Education College, Guizhou 551300, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Taipa 999078, Macau, SAR, China; Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, China Education Ministry, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
Neuroscience. 2021 Mar 1;457:155-164. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2021.01.019. Epub 2021 Jan 21.
Resilience, a personality construct that reflects capacities to persevere, maintain a positive outlook and/or thrive despite ongoing stressors, has emerged as an important focus of research on chronic pain (CP). Although behavior studies have found more resilient persons with CP experience less pain-related dysfunction than less resilient cohorts do, the presence and nature of associated brain structure differences has received scant attention. To address this gap, we examined gray matter volume (GMV) differences between more versus less resilient adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Participants (75 women, 43 men) were community-dwellers who reported ongoing musculoskeletal pain for at least three months. More (n = 57) and less (n = 61) resilient subgroups, respectively, were identified on the basis of scoring above and below median scores on two validated resilience questionnaires. Voxel-based morphology (VBM) undertaken to examine resilience subgroup differences in GMV indicated more resilient participants displayed significantly larger GMV in the (1) bilateral precuneus, (2) left superior and inferior parietal lobules, (3) orbital right middle frontal gyrus and medial right superior frontal gyrus, and (4) bilateral median cingulate and paracingulate gyri, even after controlling for subgroup differences on demographics and measures of pain-related distress. Together, results underscored the presence and nature of specific GMV differences underlying subjective reports of more versus less resilient responses to ongoing musculoskeletal pain.
复原力是一种人格特质，反映了个体在面对持续压力源时坚持不懈、保持积极心态和/或茁壮成长的能力，现已成为慢性疼痛（CP）研究的一个重要焦点。尽管行为研究发现，与复原力较弱的人群相比，复原力较强的慢性疼痛患者经历的疼痛相关功能障碍更少，但相关脑结构差异的存在和性质却很少受到关注。为了填补这一空白，我们研究了慢性肌肉骨骼疼痛患者中复原力较强与较弱的成年人之间的灰质体积（GMV）差异。参与者（75名女性，43名男性）为社区居民，他们报告持续的肌肉骨骼疼痛至少三个月。根据两份经过验证的复原力量表得分高于或低于中位数，分别确定了复原力较强（n = 57）和较弱（n = 61）的亚组。通过基于体素的形态学（VBM）来检查GMV中的复原力亚组差异，结果表明，即使在控制了人口统计学和疼痛相关痛苦测量方面的亚组差异后，复原力较强的参与者在以下区域的GMV仍显著更大：（1）双侧楔前叶，（2）左侧顶上小叶和顶下小叶，（3）右侧眶额中回和右侧额上回内侧，以及（4）双侧中央扣带回和旁扣带回。总之，研究结果强调了在对持续的肌肉骨骼疼痛的复原力较强与较弱反应的主观报告背后，特定GMV差异的存在和性质。
