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Abstract #0201

Neural correlates of aberrant pain processing and modulation in fibromyalgia: a simultaneous spinal cord-brain fMRI study

Dario Pfyffer1, Merve Kaptan1, Christine SW Law1, Kenneth A Weber II1, Valeria Oliva1,2, Sandrine Bédard1,3, Teresa Indriolo1, Tara Maronesy1, Gary H Glover4, and Sean Mackey1
1Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States, 2Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy, 3Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Polytechnique Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada, 4Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States

Synopsis

Keywords: Task/Intervention Based fMRI, Neuroscience, Corticospinal fMRI, Head & Neck, Chronic Pain, Fibromyalgia

Motivation: Dysfunctions in the endogenous pain modulation system contribute to chronic pain. Information on affected spinal cord and brain areas and their intricate interplay is largely missing.

Goal(s): To identify corticospinal correlates of aberrant pain processing and modulation in fibromyalgia (FM).

Approach: We used simultaneous spinal cord-brain fMRI paired with noxious heat stimulations and a gripping task to investigate deficient motor-related pain modulation in FM compared to age-/sex-matched pain-free healthy volunteers (HV).

Results: We demonstrated elevated activation in pain-modulatory brain areas (i.e., prefrontal/primary motor cortex) in HV versus FM, and increased nociceptive signaling in spinal dorsal horns in FM versus HV, during combined stimulation-gripping.

Impact: Identification of dysfunctional networks involved in pain modulation along the neuroaxis might present promising neural targets for more efficient treatment of chronic pain (e.g., non-invasive brain or spinal cord stimulation) and advance the development of pain biomarkers and precision medicine.

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Keywords