Altered brain reward response to monetary incentives in fibromyalgia: A replication study

Abstract

Dysregulated brain reward systems have been observed in chronic pain. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a monetary incentive delay (MID) task, Martucci et al. (2018) showed that neural responses to reward anticipation and outcome are altered in patients with fibromyalgia. The current study aimed to replicate these results in a separate cohort of patients with fibromyalgia recruited at a new location using a similar study design. Twenty patients with fibromyalgia and 20 healthy controls were included in the replication study. Group fMRI analyses revealed a solid and consistent trend of main findings similar to the previous results. Specifically, in the replication cohort of patients with fibromyalgia, medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) activity was reduced during gain anticipation and increased during no-loss (non-punishment) outcomes, as compared to controls. Similar to the Martucci et al. results, again in the replication cohort, nucleus accumbens activity during gain anticipation did not differ in patients compared to controls. The same behavioral, correlational, and exploratory analyses that were conducted in the Martucci et al. study were conducted in the present replication study, with prior results largely replicated here. Thus, the present replication study results solidify observations of altered cortico-striatal processing to monetary rewards in chronic pain, which underscore relevance of altered brain reward circuits, particularly as related to the MPFC in patients with fibromyalgia.

Altered resting-state functional connectivity within corticostriatal and subcortical-striatal circuits in chronic pain

“…After completing the questionnaires, MRI scans were conducted. Additional questionnaires and brain scans 15 , 74 were collected but were not included in the analyses for this study.…”

“…Scans were conducted on a 3 T GE Premier UHP system with a 48-channel coil at the Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center. The scan sessions consisted of the initial preparatory localizer, asset calibration scans, task fMRI scans 74 , T1 anatomical scan, and a resting-state scan. The fMRI scan parameters were as follows: Gradient Echo Pulse Sequence, echo time (TE) 25 ms, repetition time (TR) 2 s, interleaved slice order, 46 slices, flip angle 77°, 2.9 mm slice thickness, pixel size 2.9 mm.…”