Functional Reorganization of the Default Mode Network across Chronic Pain Conditions
Marwan N. Baliki, Ali Mansour, Alex T. Baria, A. Vania Apkarian
PLoS One September 2, 2014 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106133 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Patients with chronic back pain, complex regional pain syndrome, and knee osteoarthritis |
| Topics | Default mode network Neuroplasticity |
| Keywords | Chronic pain Prefrontal cortex Resting State FMRI Osteoarthritis Magnetic resonance imaging Anesthesia Cognition Pathology |
| Citations | 539 |
| Key findings | Chronic pain reorganizes the default mode network's connectivity and oscillatory dynamics, with changes correlated to pain intensity and duration. |
Abstract
Chronic pain is associated with neuronal plasticity. Here we use resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate functional changes in patients suffering from chronic back pain (CBP), complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and knee osteoarthritis (OA). We isolated five meaningful resting-state networks across the groups, of which only the default mode network (DMN) exhibited deviations from healthy controls. All patient groups showed decreased connectivity of medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) to the posterior constituents of the DMN, and increased connectivity to the insular cortex in proportion to the intensity of pain. Multiple DMN regions, especially the MPFC, exhibited increased high frequency oscillations, conjoined with decreased phase locking with parietal regions involved in processing attention. Both phase and frequency changes correlated to pain duration in OA and CBP patients. Thus chronic pain seems to reorganize the dynamics of the DMN and as such reflect the maladaptive physiology of different types of chronic pain.