Functional reorganization of the default mode network across chronic pain conditions


Author: Marwan N Baliki1, Ali R Mansour1, Alex T Baria1, A Vania Apkarian2

Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.

<sup>2</sup> Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America; Department of Anesthesia, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America; Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
Conference/Journal: PLoS One
Date published: 2014 Sep 2
Other:
 Volume ID: 9   ,  Issue ID: 9   ,  Pages: e106133   ,  Special Notes: doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106133.   ,  Word Count: 157  
    Chronic pain is associated with neuronal plasticity. Here we use resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate functional changes in patients suffering from chronic back pain (CBP), complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and knee osteoarthritis (OA). We isolated five meaningful resting-state networks across the groups, of which only the default mode network (DMN) exhibited deviations from healthy controls. All patient groups showed decreased connectivity of medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) to the posterior constituents of the DMN, and increased connectivity to the insular cortex in proportion to the intensity of pain. Multiple DMN regions, especially the MPFC, exhibited increased high frequency oscillations, conjoined with decreased phase locking with parietal regions involved in processing attention. Both phase and frequency changes correlated to pain duration in OA and CBP patients. Thus chronic pain seems to reorganize the dynamics of the DMN and as such reflect the maladaptive physiology of different types of chronic pain. 





PMID: 25180885 PMCID: PMC4152156 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106133