UMIT Tirol - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Austria.
University of Jaén, Department of Psychology, Jaén, Spain.
Brain Res. 2021 May 1;1758:147333. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147333. Epub 2021 Feb 2.
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is characterized by chronic widespread pain accompanied by symptoms like fatigue, insomnia, depression, anxiety and cognitive impairments. In addition to central nervous pain sensitization, emotional dysregulation may be involved in FMS pathogenesis. This study investigated central nervous correlates of affective and attentional processing in FMS using an implicit task.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) of the EEG were recorded in 25 FMS patients and 37 healthy controls while they had to name the frame color of pictures displaying emotional expressions (angry, painful, happy, neutral). The actual picture had to be ingored. Symptoms of pain, depression and anxiety were also assessed.
Patients exhibited smaller P2 and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes, and a greater N250 amplitude, than controls. The N250 amplitude varied according to the emotional expressions displayed in patients, but not in controls. No group differences arose for the P1 or N170 amplitudes. Patients had longer reaction times and made more errors on the task; task performance was more closely related to pain severity than to other symptoms.
The reduced P2 and LPP amplitudes indicate deficient short-term mobilization of attentional resources and sustained attention in FMS; the greater N250 amplitude may reflect greater engagement in the decoding of complex facial features, which is necessary to compensate for attentional impairments. Affective modulation of the N250 suggests that the neural mechanisms underlying complex visual processes are particularly susceptible to emotional influences in FMS. The behavioral data confirm attentional deficits in the disorder and implicate clinical pain therein.
纤维肌痛综合征（FMS）的特征是慢性广泛性疼痛，伴有疲劳、失眠、抑郁、焦虑和认知障碍等症状。除了中枢神经系统疼痛敏化外，情绪调节障碍可能与 FMS 的发病机制有关。本研究使用内隐任务研究了 FMS 中情感和注意处理的中枢相关性。
在 25 名 FMS 患者和 37 名健康对照者进行事件相关电位（ERP）记录时，他们必须命名显示情绪表达（愤怒、痛苦、快乐、中性）的图片的边框颜色。实际图片必须被忽略。还评估了疼痛、抑郁和焦虑的症状。
与对照组相比，患者的 P2 和晚期正电位（LPP）振幅较小，N250 振幅较大。在患者中，N250 振幅随显示的情绪表达而变化，但在对照组中则不然。P1 或 N170 振幅没有组间差异。患者的反应时间较长，任务错误较多；任务表现与疼痛严重程度的关系比与其他症状的关系更密切。
P2 和 LPP 振幅的降低表明 FMS 中注意力资源的短期动员和持续注意力不足；较大的 N250 振幅可能反映了对复杂面部特征的解码的更大参与，这是补偿注意力障碍所必需的。N250 的情感调节表明，复杂视觉过程的神经机制在 FMS 中特别容易受到情绪影响。行为数据证实了该疾病中的注意力缺陷，并暗示了临床疼痛的存在。
