fMRI of pain studies using laser-induced heat on skin with and without the loved one near the subject _ a pilot study on 'love hurts'

9th National Seminar on Medical Physics

物理学;医药卫生

Sofina, T.^1 ; Kamil, W.A.^1 ; Ahmad, A.H.^1

School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan

16150, Malaysia^1

关键词: Anatomical structures;    Blood oxygenation level dependent;    Brain response;    Design paradigm;    Echo planar imaging;    Neuronal response;    Pre-processing step;    Somatosensory;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/546/1/012006/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/546/1/012006

学科分类：卫生学

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

The aims of this study are to image and investigate the areas of brain response to laser-induced heat pain, to analyse for any difference in the brain response when a subject is alone and when her loved one is present next to the MRI gantry. Pain stimuli was delivered using Th-YAG laser to four female subjects. Blood-Oxygenation-Level-Dependent (BOLD) fMRI experiment was performed using blocked design paradigm with five blocks of painful (P) stimuli and five blocks of non-painful (NP) stimuli arranged in pseudorandom order with an 18 seconds rest (R) between each stimulation phase. Brain images were obtained from 3T Philips Achieva MRI scanner using 32-channel SENSE head coil. A T1-weighted image (TR/TE/slice/FOV 9ms/4ms/4mm slices/240×240mm) was obtained for verification of brain anatomical structures. An echo-planar-imaging sequence were used for the functional scans (TR/TE/slice/flip/FOV=2000ms/35ms/4mm slices/90°/220×220mm). fMRI data sets were analysed using SPM 8.0 involving preprocessing steps followed by t-contrast analysis for individuals and FFX analysis. In both with and without-loved-one conditions, neuronal responses were seen in the somatosensory gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, thalamus and insula regions, consistent with pain-related areas. FFX analysis showed that the presence of loved one produced more activation in the frontal and supramarginal gyrus during painful and non-painful stimulations compared to absence of a loved one. Brain response to pain is modulated by the presence of a loved one, causing more activation in the cognitive/emotional area i.e. 'love hurts'.