Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science, Suwon, South Korea.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, South Korea.
PLoS Biol. 2024 Nov 13;22(11):e3002910. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002910. eCollection 2024 Nov.
Pain is not a mere reflection of noxious input. Rather, it is constructed through the dynamic integration of current predictions with incoming sensory input. However, the temporal dynamics of the behavioral and neural processes underpinning this integration remain elusive. In the current study involving 59 human participants, we identified a series of brain mediators that integrated cue-induced expectations with noxious inputs into ongoing pain predictions using a semicircular scale designed to capture rating trajectories. Temporal mediation analysis revealed that during the early-to-mid stages of integration, the frontoparietal and dorsal attention network regions, such as the lateral prefrontal, premotor, and parietal cortex, mediated the cue effects. Conversely, during the mid-to-late stages of integration, the somatomotor network regions mediated the effects of stimulus intensity, suggesting that the integration occurs along the cortical hierarchy from the association to sensorimotor brain systems. Our findings advance the understanding of how the brain integrates contextual and sensory information into pain experience over time.
疼痛不仅仅是有害刺激的反映。相反，它是通过当前预测与传入感觉输入的动态整合而构建的。然而，支持这种整合的行为和神经过程的时间动态仍然难以捉摸。在当前涉及 59 名人类参与者的研究中，我们使用半圆形量表识别了一系列大脑介导物，这些介导物将线索引起的预期与持续疼痛预测中的有害输入整合在一起，该量表旨在捕捉评分轨迹。时间中介分析表明，在整合的早期到中期阶段，额顶叶和背侧注意网络区域，如外侧前额叶、运动前皮质和顶叶皮质，介导了线索的作用。相反，在整合的中期到后期阶段，躯体运动网络区域介导了刺激强度的作用，这表明整合是沿着从关联到感觉运动大脑系统的皮质层次进行的。我们的发现推进了对大脑如何随着时间的推移将上下文和感觉信息整合到疼痛体验中的理解。
