BackgroundRepetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is one of the high-potential non-pharmacological methods for migraine treatment. The purpose of this study is to define the neuroimaging markers associated with rTMS therapy in patients with migraine based on data from functional MRI (fMRI).Materials and MethodsA total of 19 patients with episodic migraine without aura underwent a 5-day course of rTMS of the fronto-temporo-parietal junction bilaterally, at 10 Hz frequency and 60% of motor threshold response of 900 pulses. Resting-state functional MRI (1.5 T) and a battery of tests were carried out for each patient to clarify their diagnosis, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of pain, and associated affective symptoms. Changes in functional connectivity (FC) in the brain's neural networks before and after the treatment were identified through independent components analysis.ResultsOver the course of therapy, we observed an increase in FC of the default mode network within it, with pain system components and with structures of the visual network. We also noted a decrease in FC of the salience network with sensorimotor and visual networks, as well as an increase in FC of the visual network. Besides, we identified 5 patients who did not have a positive response to one rTMS course after the first week of treatment according to the clinical scales results, presumably because of an increasing trend of depressive symptoms and neuroimaging criteria for depressive disorder.ConclusionsOur results show that a 5-day course of rTMS significantly alters the connectivity of brain networks associated with pain and antinociceptive brain systems in about 70% of cases, which may shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying migraine treatment with rTMS.

Introduction. Alcoholism and opioid addiction are the leading problems of modern narcology and together with adaptation disorders create a significant contribution to dismission from the ranks of the Armed Forces. Identifying the latent forms of mental disorders is of particular importance for making expert decisions at invoking. Special MRI techniques allow to evaluate the functional and microstructural connectivity of distant parts of the brain.Materials and methods. With the application of functional MRI and tractography, 405 patients were examined from the potential conscription pool: 76 patients with alcohol dependence syndrome, 170 with opioid dependence syndrome, and 9 with adaptation disorders. In patients suffering from adaptation disorders, opioid dependence and alcoholism, an analysis of the neural network of the passive mode of the brain was performed.Results. There was established, comparing to the control group, all the patients suffering from addiction demonstrated a weakening of the functional connections of all brain structures. Compared with the control group, the patients with drug addiction and alcoholism had microstructural deformation between the cortical and subcortical structures, especially between the amygdala and the hippocampus. The weakening of functional and microstructural links in the network of the passive mode of the brain in groups of drug addicts indicates that they have violated the processes of control, thinking and the correct decision making. In case of adaptation disorders, integral bilateral differences in terms of global and local node efficiency between groups of patients with adaptation disorder and healthy individuals showed a higher significance of the network of passive mode of the brain in the system of mutual functional connectivity of the posterior cingulate cortex and preclinical. The data obtained create the basis for the creation of biomarkers for patients suffering from mental disorders, which can be used to examine, guide and evaluate the treatment of this pathology.

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Background and Purpose:The opioid addiction is among the most often found types of addictive pathology conceding on prevalence only to an alcohol addiction. To estimate the functional state of the brain in patients with opioid dependence syndrome using fMRI.Materials and Methods: 82 men were examined, 64 of them aged 30.9+2.6 years having opioid dependence syndrome (F11.2). The control group (CG) included 18 healthy. Functional MRI was performed on Siemens Espree 1.5T MRI system using the BOLD technique. Based on the MATLAB (Neural Network Toolbox) software, the CONN Functional Connectivity Toolbox 17 was started, which preprocessed the received data separately for each study. Next was the stage of noise reduction and two-level processing, a correlation was estimated based on the "interested" areas (ROI-to-ROI).Results: In all patients suffering from opioid addiction, at resting-state fMRI, "oppression" of functional connections is noted in comparison with the normals. These changes are noted both in the default mode networks, and in the cortical and subcortical structures, which indicate: a violation of control functions, making the right decision, thinking, cognitive and emotional components in narcotic drug addicts. Conclusions:The obtained data on functional changes in brain structures in patients suffering from opioid addiction will help to clarify the pathogenetic mechanisms of this pathology, with the possibility of subsequent development

Background: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is one of high-potential non-pharmacological methods for migraine treatment. The purpose of this study is to objectively evaluate the efficacy of rTMS in patients with migraine based on data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods: 19 patients with migraine without aura underwent a 5-day course of rTMS of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex bilaterally, at 10Hz frequency and 60% of motor threshold response of 900 pulses. Resting-state functional MRI (1.5 T) and battery of tests were carried out for each patient to clarify their diagnosis, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of pain, and associated affective symptoms. Changes in functional connectivity (FC) in the brain’s neural networks before and after the treatment were identified through independent components analysis. Results: Over the course of therapy, we observed an increase in FC of the default mode network within it, with pain system components and with structures of the visual network. We also noted a decrease in FC of the salience network with sensorimotor and visual networks, as well as an increase in FC of the visual network. Besides, we identified 5 patients who did not have a positive response to one rTMS course, presumably because of an increased trend to depressive symptoms and neuroimaging criteria for depressive disorder. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence of a 70% efficacy of rTMS judging by neuroimaging changes and a decrease in clinical symptoms. Moreover, we identified neuroimaging criteria for the therapy efficacy as well as possible predictors of successful/unsuccessful response to the therapy.