Department of Neurology and Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences (C-TNBS), University Hospital Essen, Hufelandstrasse 55, Essen 45147, Germany.
Department of Neurology and Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences (C-TNBS), University Hospital Essen, Hufelandstrasse 55, Essen 45147, Germany.
Neuroimage. 2022 Aug 15;257:119333. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119333. Epub 2022 May 25.
Visceral pain is regarded as more salient than somatic pain. It has greater affective and emotional components, i.e., it elicits higher levels of pain-related fear and is perceived as more unpleasant than somatic pain. In this fMRI study, we examined the neural effects of painful visceral as compared to painful somatic stimulation on visual processing and memory encoding in a visual categorization and surprise recognition task in healthy volunteers. During the categorization task, participants received either rectal distensions or heat stimuli applied to the forearm, with stimuli being individually matched for unpleasantness. Behaviorally, visceral pain reduced memory encoding as compared to somatic pain (Kleine-Borgmann et al., 2021). Imaging analyses now revealed that visceral pain was associated with reduced activity (i.e., greater pain-related interruption) in neural areas typically involved in visual processing and memory encoding. These include the parahippocampal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, striatum, occipital cortex, insula, and the amygdala. Moreover, reduced engagement of the lateral occipital complex during visual categorization under visceral pain was associated with higher visceral pain-related fear. These findings obtained in healthy volunteers shed light on the neural circuitry underlying the interruptive effect of visceral pain and pave the way for future studies in patient samples.
内脏痛被认为比躯体痛更明显。它具有更大的情感成分，即引起更高水平的与疼痛相关的恐惧，并被认为比躯体痛更不愉快。在这项 fMRI 研究中，我们研究了健康志愿者在视觉分类和惊喜识别任务中，与躯体痛相比，内脏痛刺激对视觉处理和记忆编码的神经效应。在分类任务中，参与者接受直肠扩张或热刺激前臂，刺激的不愉快程度单独匹配。行为上，与躯体痛相比，内脏痛会降低记忆编码（Kleine-Borgmann 等人，2021 年）。现在的成像分析表明，内脏痛与通常参与视觉处理和记忆编码的神经区域的活动减少（即更大的与疼痛相关的中断）有关。这些区域包括海马旁回、梭状回、纹状体、枕叶皮层、脑岛和杏仁核。此外，在视觉分类过程中，内脏痛下外侧枕叶复合体的参与减少与更高的内脏痛相关恐惧有关。这些在健康志愿者中获得的发现揭示了内脏痛中断效应的神经回路，为未来在患者样本中的研究铺平了道路。
