Control of bladder sensations: An fMRI study of brain activity and effective connectivity

A Preliminary Report on the Use of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Simultaneous Urodynamics to Record Brain Activity During Micturition

“…KuhtzBuschbeck et al noted that intentional modulations of the desire to void change the effective connectivity of the supraspinal regions involved in bladder control. 17 In this study activity in the right anterior insula and the periaqueductal gray was enhanced at higher bladder volumes. Subjects unable to void showed activation in the frontal gyrus and cingulum but not in the pons or thalamus, supporting the hypothesis that while frontal lobes are involved in voluntary micturition, their activity alone cannot initiate bladder emptying.…”

Brain structural correlates of sensory phenomena in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder

“…In any case, both possibilities are in agreement with electrophysiological evidence of sensorimotor hyperexcitability and altered sensory gating observed in general OCD samples. 40,41 Moreover, somatosensory cortex hyperactivity and the prominent influence of somatosensory information over motor cortex activity has been consistently reported in association with the presence of SP, [11][12][13][14] and neural activity in the sensorimotor area has been related to urge sensations in other contexts, such as voluntary blink suppression, 42 urge to void, 43 or urge to cough. 44 Likewise, it should be highlighted that while in Tourette syndrome samples grey matter increases have been located in more lateral regions of the somatosensory cortex (corresponding to the face and speech related regions), 15 in our study grey matter increases were observed in more medial regions, corresponding to the trunk and appendicular body regions, where most of the bodily SP are experienced by patients with OCD.…”

α‐synuclein pathology accumulates in sacral spinal visceral sensory pathways

“…This would include pelvic primary afferent fibers and secondary afferent neurons that project from the sacral cord to the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) 16, 19 . The PAG is important for bladder filling as shown by functional imaging studies in humans 20, 21 and projects to Barrington’s nucleus 22 . Barrington’s nucleus, which does not receive dense innervation from the sacral spinal cord 22 then in turn controls the detrusor muscle via descending projections to the sacral intermediolateral cell column.…”