Show simple item record

dc.contributor.authorMills, E.P.
dc.contributor.authorAlshelh, Z.
dc.contributor.authorKosanovic, D.
dc.contributor.authorDi Pietro, Flavia
dc.contributor.authorVickers, E.R.
dc.contributor.authorMacey, P.M.
dc.contributor.authorHenderson, L.A.
dc.date.accessioned2021-07-29T05:14:24Z
dc.date.available2021-07-29T05:14:24Z
dc.date.issued2020
dc.identifier.citationMills, E.P. and Alshelh, Z. and Kosanovic, D. and Di Pietro, F. and Vickers, E.R. and Macey, P.M. and Henderson, L.A. 2020. Altered brainstem pain-modulation circuitry connectivity during spontaneous pain intensity fluctuations. Journal of Pain Research. 13: pp. 2223-2235.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/84867
dc.identifier.doi10.2147/JPR.S252594
dc.description.abstract

Background: Chronic pain, particularly that following nerve injury, can occur in the absence of external stimuli. Although the ongoing pain is sometimes continuous, in many individuals the intensity of their pain fluctuates. Experimental animal studies have shown that the brainstem contains circuits that modulate nociceptive information at the primary afferent synapse and these circuits are involved in maintaining ongoing continuous neuropathic pain. However, it remains unknown if these circuits are involved in regulating fluctuations of ongoing neuropathic pain in humans.

Methods: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine whether in 19 subjects with painful trigeminal neuropathy, brainstem pain-modulation circuitry function changes according to moment-to-moment fluctuations in spontaneous pain intensity as rated online over a 12-minute period.

Results: We found that when pain intensity was spontaneously high, connectivity strengths between regions of the brainstem endogenous pain-modulating circuitry—the midbrain periaque-ductal gray, rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM), and the spinal trigeminal nucleus (SpV)—were high, and vice-versa (when pain was low, connectivity was low). Additionally, sliding-window connectivity analysis using 50-second windows revealed a significant positive relationship between ongoing pain intensity and RVM-SpV connectivity over the duration of the 12-minute scan.

Conclusion: These data reveal that moment-to-moment changes in brainstem pain-modula-tion circuitry functioning likely contribute to fluctuations in spontaneous pain intensity in individuals with chronic neuropathic pain.

dc.languageeng
dc.relation.sponsoredbyhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1130280
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
dc.subjectdynamic connectivity
dc.subjectfunctional connectivity
dc.subjectmidbrain periaqueductal gray matter
dc.subjectrostral ventromedial medulla
dc.subjectspinal trigeminal nucleus
dc.subjectspontaneous pain
dc.titleAltered brainstem pain-modulation circuitry connectivity during spontaneous pain intensity fluctuations
dc.typeJournal Article
dcterms.source.volume13
dcterms.source.startPage2223
dcterms.source.endPage2235
dcterms.source.issn1178-7090
dcterms.source.titleJournal of Pain Research
dc.date.updated2021-07-29T05:14:23Z
curtin.departmentCurtin Medical School
curtin.accessStatusOpen access
curtin.facultyFaculty of Health Sciences
curtin.contributor.orcidDi Pietro, Flavia [0000-0002-9642-0805]
curtin.contributor.researcheridDi Pietro, Flavia [P-5415-2018]
dcterms.source.eissn1178-7090
curtin.contributor.scopusauthoridDi Pietro, Flavia [6603432291]


Files in this item

Thumbnail

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/