Brain mechanisms of chronic pain: critical role of translational approach

Barroso, Joana; Branco, Paulo; Apkarian, A. Vania

doi:10.1016/j.trsl.2021.06.004

Cited by 42 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Nonetheless, it is clear that chronic pain links to long-term stress exposure (Vachon-Presseau et al, 2013 ; Egloff et al, 2014 ; Egle et al, 2016 ) and chronicity implies a shift of neural activity from neo-cortical to older meso-limbic areas linking to the stress-axis and to emotional memory function (Hashmi et al, 2013 ; Vachon-Presseau et al, 2016a ). Hence, it has been proposed that emotional learning connects aversive life events and physical pain-chronicity (Vachon-Presseau et al, 2016b ; Barroso et al, 2021 ). This fits well with epidemiological data revealing that early life stress correlates with chronic pain (Afari et al, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guilt is effectively induced by a written auto-biographical essay but not reduced by experimental pain

Schär

Vehlen

Ebneter

et al. 2022

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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IntroductionThe aim of the present study was (1) to validate the method of guilt-induction by means of a written auto-biographical essay and (2) to test whether experimental pain is apt to alleviate the mental burden of guilt, a concept receiving support from both empirical research and clinical observation.MethodsThree independent groups of healthy male participants were recruited. Group allocation was not randomized but within group pain/sham administration was counterbalanced over the two test-days. Groups were tested in the following consecutive order: Group A: guilt induction, heat-pain/sham, N = 59; Group B: guilt induction, cold-pressure-pain/sham, N = 43; Group C: emotionally neutral induction, heat-pain/sham, N = 39. Guilt was induced on both test-days in group A and B before pain/sham administration. Visual analog scale (VAS) guilt ratings immediately after pain/sham stimulation served as the primary outcome. In a control group C the identical heat-pain experiment was performed like in group A but a neutral emotional state was induced.ResultsA consistently strong overall effect of guilt-induction (heat-pain: p < 0.001, effect size r = 0.71; CPT-pain p < 0.001, r = 0.67) was found when compared to the control-condition (p = 0.25, r = 0.08). As expected, heat- and cold-pressure-stimuli were highly painful in all groups (p < 0.0001, r = 0.89). However, previous research supporting the hypothesis that pain is apt to reduce guilt was not replicated.ConclusionAlthough guilt-induction was highly effective on both test-days no impact of pain on behavioral guilt-ratings in healthy individuals could be identified. Guilt induction per se did not depend on the order of testing. The result questions previous experimental work on the impact of pain on moral emotions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guilt is effectively induced by a written auto-biographical essay but not reduced by experimental pain

Schär

Vehlen

Ebneter

et al. 2022

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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“…The hippocampus and NAc belong to the mesolimbic pathway, and PFC and ACC belong to the mesocortical pathway. They constitute the mesocorticolimbic pathway system, one of the main dopamine pathways in the brain, which is responsible for motive, encoding value, reward, aversion, and learning process (Barroso et al, 2021 ). This pathway has recently been found to be associated with the occurrence, amplification, and persistence of chronic pain and its emotion-affective dimensions, and the increase of FC between PFC and NAc may be a key gated process controlling the transition to chronic pain, as the amount of information shared between PFC and NAc is significantly higher in patients who subsequently transition to chronic pain (Vachon-Presseau et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered brain activities in mesocorticolimbic pathway in primary dysmenorrhea patients of long-term menstrual pain

Liu

Hong

et al. 2023

Front. Neurosci.

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BackgroundPatients with primary dysmenorrhea (PDM) often present with abnormalities other than dysmenorrhea including co-occurrence with other chronic pain conditions and central sensitization. Changes in brain activity in PDM have been demonstrated; however, the results are not consistent. Herein, this study probed into altered intraregional and interregional brain activity in patients with PDM and expounded more findings.MethodsA total of 33 patients with PDM and 36 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited and underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) and mean amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (mALFF) analysis were applied to compare the difference in intraregional brain activity between the two groups, and the regions with ReHo and mALFF group differences were used as seeds for functional connectivity (FC) analysis to explore the difference of interregional activity. Pearson's correlation analysis was conducted between rs-fMRI data and clinical symptoms in patients with PDM.ResultsCompared with HCs, patients with PDM showed altered intraregional activity in a series of brain regions, including the hippocampus, the temporal pole superior temporal gyrus, the nucleus accumbens, the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, the cerebellum_8, the middle temporal gyrus, the inferior temporal gyrus, the rolandic operculum, the postcentral gyrus and the middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and altered interregional FC mainly between regions of the mesocorticolimbic pathway and regions associated with sensation and movement. The anxiety symptoms are correlated with the intraregional activity of the right temporal pole superior temporal gyrus and FC between MFG and superior frontal gyrus.ConclusionOur study showed a more comprehensive method to explore changes in brain activity in PDM. We found that the mesocorticolimbic pathway might play a key role in the chronic transformation of pain in PDM. We, therefore, speculate that the modulation of the mesocorticolimbic pathway may be a potential novel therapeutic mechanism for PDM.

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“…In another study, REACT has also provided intriguing findings in chronic pain, which is increasingly understood to be partially driven by, and produce, perturbations in supraspinal functional circuits (Barroso et al, 2021). However, treatment responses are highly heterogeneous, likely due to divergent underlying mechanisms within patients sharing the same diagnoses (Woolf, 2010).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Neurotransmitters to Networks: Transcending Organisational Hierarchies with Molecular-informed Functional Imaging

Lawn¹,

Howard²,

Turkheimer³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The human brain exhibits complex interactions across micro, meso-, and macro-scale organisational principles. Recent synergistic multi-modal approaches have begun to link micro-scale information to systems level dynamics, transcending organisational hierarchies and offering novel perspectives into the brain’s function and dysfunction. Specifically, the distribution of micro-scale properties (such as receptor density or gene expression) can be mapped onto macro-scale measures from functional MRI to provide novel neurobiological insights. Methodological approaches to enrich functional imaging analyses with molecular information are rapidly evolving, with several streams of research having developed relatively independently, each offering unique potential to explore the trans-hierarchical functioning of the brain. Here, we address the three principal streams of research – spatial correlation, molecular-enriched network, and in-silico whole brain modelling analyses – to provide a critical overview of the different sources of molecular information, how this information can be utilised within analyses of fMRI data, the merits and pitfalls of each methodology, and, through the use of key examples, highlight their promise to shed new light on key domains of neuroscientific inquiry.

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Brain mechanisms of chronic pain: critical role of translational approach

Cited by 42 publications

References 83 publications

Guilt is effectively induced by a written auto-biographical essay but not reduced by experimental pain

Guilt is effectively induced by a written auto-biographical essay but not reduced by experimental pain

Altered brain activities in mesocorticolimbic pathway in primary dysmenorrhea patients of long-term menstrual pain

From Neurotransmitters to Networks: Transcending Organisational Hierarchies with Molecular-informed Functional Imaging

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