Experimental brain research. Experimentelle Hirnforschung. Expérimentation cérébrale
-
Clinical Trial
Treatment-related changes in brain activation in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome.
Little is known about the effects of successful treatment on brain function in chronic pain. This study examined changes in pain-evoked brain activation following behavioral extinction training in fibromyalgia patients. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain activation to painful mechanical stimuli applied to the 2nd phalanx of the left 2nd digit (m. flexor digitorum) was assessed in 10 patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FM) before and after behavioral extinction training. ⋯ The pre- to post-treatment reduction in both interference related to pain and pain severity were significantly associated with bilateral activation in pain-evoked activity in the posterior insula, the ipsilateral caudate nucleus/striatum, the contralateral lenticular nucleus, the left thalamus and the primary somatosensory cortex contralateral to the stimulated side. These data show a relation between successful behavioral treatment and higher activation bilaterally in the posterior insula and in the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex. Future studies should compare responders and non-responders for differential treatment effects and examine in more detail the mechanisms underlying these changes.
-
Pain catastrophizing has been associated with phantom limb pain, but so far the cortical processes and the brain regions involved in this relationship have not been investigated. It was therefore tested whether catastrophizing was related to (1) spontaneous pain, (2) somatosensory activity and (3) cortical responses in phantom limb pain patients. The cortical responses were investigated via electroencephalography (EEG) as it has a high temporal resolution which may be ideal for investigating especially the attentional and hypervigilance aspect of catastrophizing to standardized acute stimuli. ⋯ Catastrophizing accounted for significant amounts of the variance in relation to spontaneous pain, especially worst pain (64.1%), and it was significantly associated with thresholds. At the affected side, catastrophizing was significantly related to the power RMS of the N/P135 dipole located in the area around the secondary somatosensory cortex which has been shown to be associated with arousal and expectations. These findings corroborate the attentional model of pain catastrophizing by indicating that even non-painful stimuli are related to enhanced attention to and negative expectations of stimuli, and they suggest that memory processes may be central to understanding the link between catastrophizing and pain.