Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM), characterized by cramping pain in the lower abdomen, is a common gynecological disorder in women of child-bearing age. An increasing number of neuroimaging studies have emphasized that PDM is associated with functional and structural abnormalities in the regions related to the default mode network (DMN). Based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the aim of this study was to use amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and functional connectivity (FC) to investigate changes of the intrinsic brain activity in the DMN in PDM. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to assess relationships between the neuroimaging findings and clinical symptoms. Forty-eight PDM patients and thirty-eight matched healthy controls participated in this study. Compared to healthy controls, PDM patients had increased ALFF in the precuneus, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and decreased ALFF in the thalamus. PDM patients also had decreased connectivity between the precuneus and left dmPFC and right ACC, while increased connectivity between the precuneus and left thalamus. In addition, the ALFF in the left dmPFC in PDM patients positively correlated with disease duration. Our findings provide further evidence of the DMN-related abnormalities in PDM patients which might contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease.

Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM), a common gynecological disorder, is associated with structural and functional alterations in several subregions of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). However, systematic functional connectivity of the ACC subregions in PDM has not been clarified. In this study, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from forty-eight PDM patients and thirty-eight matched female healthy controls to investigate the functional connectivity of ACC subregions in PDM. Compared to healthy controls, PDM patients exhibited increased connectivity between the caudal ACC (cACC) and primary somatosensory cortex (SI), between the perigenual ACC (pACC) and caudate, and between the subgenual ACC (sACC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). PDM patients also showed decreased connectivity between the pACC and precuneus. In PDM group, the connectivity of the right pACC-right caudate positively correlated with disease duration, and the connectivity of the left pACC-left precuneus negatively correlated with disease severity. These present findings reveal that abnormal ACC connectivity may be implicated in the PDM-related disturbances in pain sensory, modulation, and affection. We hope that our study could enhance the understanding of the pathophysiology underlying PDM.

Recent studies suggest dysfunctional brain-gut interactions are involved in the pathophysiology of functional dyspepsia (FD). However, limited studies have investigated brain structural abnormalities in FD patients. This study aimed to identify potential differences in both cortical thickness and subcortical volume in FD patients compared to healthy controls (HCs) and to explore relationships of structural abnormalities with clinical symptoms. Sixty-nine patients and forty-nine HCs underwent 3T structural magnetic resonance imaging scans. Cortical thickness and subcortical volume were compared between the groups across the cortical and subcortical regions, respectively. Regression analysis was then performed to examine relationships between the structure alternations and clinical symptoms in FD patients. Our results showed that FD patients had decreased cortical thickness compared to HCs in the distributed brain regions including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), anterior/posterior cingulate cortex (ACC/PCC), insula, superior parietal cortex (SPC), supramarginal gyrus and lingual gyrus. Significantly negative correlations were observed between the Nepean Dyspepsia Index (NDI) and cortical thickness in the mPFC, second somatosensory cortex (SII), ACC and parahippocampus (paraHIPP). And significantly negative correlations were found between disease duration and the cortical thickness in the vlPFC, first somatosensory cortex (SI) and insula in FD patients. These findings suggest that FD patients have structural abnormalities in brain regions involved in sensory perception, sensorimotor integration, pain modulation, affective and cognitive controls. The relationships between the brain structural changes and clinical symptoms indicate that the alternations may be a consequence of living with FD.

Crohn's disease (CD) has been reported to relate with the functional and structural alterations in several local brain regions. However, it remains unknown whether the possible abnormalities of information transmission and integration between brain regions are associated with CD. The purpose of this study was to investigate the topological alterations of brain functional networks and the potential relationships between the neuroimaging findings and CD clinical characteristics. 43 remissive CD patients and 37 matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited to obtain their resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Independent component analysis was applied to decompose fMRI data for building brain functional networks. The local and global topological properties of networks and connectivity of brain regions were computed within each group. We then examined the relationships between the topological patterns and CD clinical characteristics. Compared to HCs, CD patients exhibited disrupted local and global topological patterns of brain functional networks including the decreased nodal graph metrics in the subcortical, sensorimotor, cognitive control and default-mode networks and dysfunctional interactions within and among these four networks. The connectivity strength of putamen negatively correlated with CD duration in patients. Moreover, CD patients with high level of anxiety and/or depression had altered local topological patterns associated with anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) compared to other patients. By revealing CD-related changes in topological patterns of brain functional networks, our findings provide further neuroimaging evidence on the pathophysiology of CD involved in pain, sensory, emotional and/or cognitive processing.