<p>Brain Functional Alternations of the Pain-related Emotional and Cognitive Regions in Patients with Chronic Shoulder Pain</p>

Abstract

Objective: Chronic shoulder pain (CSP) is a common health problem associated with shoulder dysfunction and persistent pain for many different reasons. However, the studies of pain-related functional brain regions in CSP have been poorly investigated. The main purpose of our study was to observe whether there are abnormal functional changes in brain regions in patients with CSP by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Patients and Methods:We compared the differences of brain regions between 37 patients with CSP and 24 healthy controls (HC) using regional homogeneity (ReHo) method. The patients with chronic shoulder pain and healthy controls were matched for age and gender. Brain regions which had abnormal ReHo values were defined as seed region of interests. The approach of seed-based functional connectivity (FC) was further performed to analyze the connectivity between the seeds and whole brain regions. The relationship between abnormal regions and current clinical pain was also evaluated. Results: Compared to healthy controls, the patients with CSP showed increased ReHo values in the left middle temporal gyrus and decreased ReHo values in right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). The seed-based analyses demonstrated decreased connectivity between the right OFC and right rectus, superior frontal gyrus in patients with chronic shoulder pain. However, a correlation between ReHo values and clinical characteristics in CSP patients was not found. Conclusion: The observed results indicate that there are abnormal ReHo values in brain regions of patients with CSP, especially in the OFC and middle temporal gyrus. Our findings demonstrate that the experience of CSP patients may be mainly associated with cognitiveaffective pain processing, rather than nociception.

Not Only in Sensorimotor Network: Local and Distant Cerebral Inherent Activity of Chronic Ankle Instability—A Resting-State fMRI Study

“…Other studies have also proved the cerebral adaptation induced by chronic pain that OFC modulates the excessive excitement input under pain circumstances by compensatory inhibition (Li et al, 2020). In pain studies like chronic shoulder pain and primary dysmenorrhea, deceased regional cerebral activity was observed in the OFC (Jin et al, 2017;Li et al, 2020). In an arterial spin labeling study, abnormal cerebral blood flow was detected in the right middle frontal orbital gyrus in migraine sufferers .…”

“…Pain is one of the common symptoms of CAI, and approximately 60% of the patients report pain symptoms (Adal et al, 2020). Other studies have also proved the cerebral adaptation induced by chronic pain that OFC modulates the excessive excitement input under pain circumstances by compensatory inhibition (Li et al, 2020). In pain studies like chronic shoulder pain and primary dysmenorrhea, deceased regional cerebral activity was observed in the OFC (Jin et al, 2017;Li et al, 2020).…”

Structural and Functional Asymmetry in Precentral and Postcentral Gyrus in Patients With Unilateral Chronic Shoulder Pain

“…Moreover, we recruited 26 healthy controls, matching the age and gender of our patients (from March 2017 to December 2018). More details about the recruitment of the CSP and HC participants ( 19 ) were described in our previous papers. Briefly, the key inclusion criteria of CSP people were: (1) 45–65 years old; (2) right-handed; (3) shoulder pain duration from 6 weeks to 24 months; (4) visual analog scale (VAS) score between 50 and 100 mm.…”

Prevalência da dor em estudantes universitários

“…Contudo, essas hipóteses não parecem suficientes para justificar a elevada prevalência e a cronificação da dor em adultos. Assim, pesquisas têm indicado que a dor também sofra influência de fatores como o estresse, ansiedade, depressão e sedentarismo (24,25,26). Além disso, a dor é constantemente negligenciada, fato que pode acarretar processo de angústia crônica na vida cotidiana e, consequentemente, levar os estudantes ao processo de transição da dor aguda para a dor crônica (24).…”