Hassanpour Shima, Algitami Hannan, Umraw Maya, Merletti Jessica, Keast Brieana, Stroman Patrick W
Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada.
Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada.
Brain Sci. 2024 Apr 30;14(5):450. doi: 10.3390/brainsci14050450.
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FM) is a chronic pain condition that affects a significant portion of the population; yet, this condition is still poorly understood. Prior research has suggested that individuals with FM display a heightened sensitivity to pain and signs of autonomic dysfunction. Recent advances in functional MRI analysis methods to model blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) responses across networks of regions, and structural and physiological modeling (SAPM) have shown the potential to provide more detailed information about altered neural activity than was previously possible. Therefore, this study aimed to apply novel analysis methods to investigate altered neural processes underlying pain sensitivity in FM in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from the brainstem and spinal cord. Prior fMRI studies have shown evidence of functional differences in fibromyalgia (FM) within brain regions associated with pain's motivational aspects, as well as differences in neural activity related to pain regulation, arousal, and autonomic homeostatic regulation within the brainstem and spinal cord regions. We, therefore, hypothesized that nociceptive processing is altered in FM compared to healthy controls (HCs) in the brainstem and spinal cord areas linked to autonomic function and descending pain regulation, including the parabrachial nuclei (PBN) and nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS). We expected that new details of this altered neural signaling would be revealed with SAPM. The results provide new evidence of altered neural signaling in FM related to arousal and autonomic homeostatic regulation. This further advances our understanding of the altered neural processing that occurs in women with FM.
纤维肌痛综合征（FM）是一种影响相当一部分人群的慢性疼痛病症；然而，这种病症仍未得到充分了解。先前的研究表明，纤维肌痛患者对疼痛表现出更高的敏感性以及自主神经功能障碍的迹象。功能磁共振成像（fMRI）分析方法在跨区域网络对血氧水平依赖（BOLD）反应进行建模方面的最新进展，以及结构和生理建模（SAPM）已显示出比以往更详细地提供有关神经活动改变信息的潜力。因此，本研究旨在应用新颖的分析方法，通过来自脑干和脊髓的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）数据，研究纤维肌痛患者疼痛敏感性背后的神经过程改变。先前的fMRI研究已证明，在与疼痛的动机方面相关的脑区，纤维肌痛（FM）存在功能差异，以及在脑干和脊髓区域内与疼痛调节、唤醒和自主神经稳态调节相关的神经活动存在差异。因此，我们假设，与健康对照（HC）相比，在与自主神经功能和下行疼痛调节相关的脑干和脊髓区域，包括臂旁核（PBN）和孤束核（NTS），纤维肌痛患者的伤害性处理发生了改变。我们预期，结构和生理建模（SAPM）将揭示这种改变的神经信号传导的新细节。结果为纤维肌痛中与唤醒和自主神经稳态调节相关的神经信号传导改变提供了新证据。这进一步加深了我们对纤维肌痛女性患者中发生的神经处理改变的理解。
