Increased thalamo‑cortical functional connectivity in patients with diabetic painful neuropathy: A resting‑state functional MRI study

Abstract

Functional changes in the brain of patients with painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) have remained largely elusive. The aim of the present study was to explore changes in thalamo-cortical functional connectivity (FC) of patients with PDN using resting-state functional MRI. A total of 20 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with non-painful diabetic neuropathy (Group NDN), 19 patients with T2DM with PDN (Group-PDN) and 13 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy controls were recruited. The differences in thalamo-cortical FC among the three groups were compared. Patients in Group PDN had increased FC in the left thalamus, the right angular gyrus and the occipital gyrus as compared to those in Group NDN. Furthermore, patients in Group PDN had increased FC in the right thalamus and angular gyrus as compared to those in Group NDN. In conclusion, the present results suggested that the thalamo-cortical FC is increased in patients with T2DM and PDN. Furthermore, the increased FC in the thalamic-parietal-occipital connectivity may be a central pathophysiological mechanism for PDN. The study was retrospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov on 3 October 2018 (identifier no. NCT03700502).

The ALFF Alterations of Spontaneous Pelvic Pain in the Patients of Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome Evaluated by fMRI

“…The clusters in the thalamus were the majority in the altered brain regions in the analysis of the mALFF. As a part of the limbic system, the thalamus was recognized as an important node to modulate the ascending nociceptive information in the chronicity of pain [ 35 ]. Several studies in patients and animal models have also proved that the thalamus was positively activated during chronic pain [ 36 , 37 ].…”

Cognition and motion dysfunction‐associated brain functional network disruption in diabetic peripheral neuropathy

“…Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a major cause of increased morbidity and mortality in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), affecting more than half of T2DM patients (Ferris et al, 2020; Liu et al, 2021). Inordinate glucose metabolism damages neurons and glial cells and then causes a series of neurological symptoms, with typical peripheral symptoms, such as limb tingling, numbness, and paresthesia (Luna et al, 2021).…”

“…Many resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs‐fMRI) studies have shown that DPN is not only a peripheral nervous system disease but that the central nervous system (CNS), especially the brain, is involved in many aspects of the disease (Tesfaye et al, 2016). A recent rs‐fMRI study calculated thalamic‐cortical functional connectivity (FC), and researchers found enhanced FC between the bilateral thalamo‐angular gyrus and left thalamo‐right middle occipital gyrus (MOG) in patients with painful DPN compared with that in patients with nonpainful DPN (Liu et al, 2021). Additionally, a task‐state fMRI study revealed that DPN patients performed poorly on motor and motor imagination tasks, associated with the presence of stronger activation in the motor preparation area (Venkataraman et al, 2019).…”

Altered brain spontaneous and synchronization activity in latent autoimmune diabetes in adults: A resting‐state functional MRI study

“…The use of resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs‐fMRI) has been revealed to be a useful approach to assess spontaneous brain activity. Amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis are essential tools to investigate the intrinsic neuropathology of diverse mental disorders 8,9 by demonstrating neural intensity and coherence 10,11 . A recent study that used rs‐fMRI to evaluate cerebral functional connectivity (FC) abnormalities in T1DM patients discovered decreased spontaneous activity and FC mostly within the default mode network that was linked to specific cognitive impairment 12,13 .…”