Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy to Assess Central Pain Responses in a Nonpharmacologic Treatment Trial of Osteoarthritis.
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common source of pain in older adults. Although OA-induced pain can be relieved with analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs, the current opioid epidemic is fostering the exploration of nonpharmacologic strategies for pain mitigation. Amongs these, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and mindfulness-based meditation (MBM) hold potential for pain-relief efficacy due to their neuromodulatory effects of the central nervous system, which is known to play a fundamental role in pain perception and processing. ⋯ In conclusion, fNIRS can be effectively used to investigate neural mechanisms of pain at the cortical level in association with nonpharmacological, self-administered treatments.
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Both clinical autonomic dysfunction and involvement of autonomic nerves have been reported in a range of peripheral nerve disorders. We employed nerve ultrasound to assess the size of the vagus nerve in a serial study of patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) and Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1B (CMT1B) as compared to healthy controls (HCs). We correlated these findings with involvement of the median and ulnar nerves. ⋯ The vagus nerve was involved to a similar extent as the median and ulnar nerves in CIDP and CMT1A, although no symptoms or signs of vagus nerve involvement were found. Further study should be performed to explore the clinical relevance of vagus nerve enlargement in these disorders.
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Recent studies suggest that the autoantibodies against adrenergic/muscarinic receptors might be one of the causes and potential markers of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural network changes related to autoantibody titers against adrenergic/muscarinic receptors in ME/CFS by performing a single-subject gray matter similarity-based structural network analysis. ⋯ Our findings suggest that β1 AdR-Ab and β2 AdR-Ab are potential markers of ME/CFS.
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Cortical development is essential for children's neurocognition. In this study, we evaluated how variations in cortical morphometry in normal children are associated with outcome differences in multiple domains of cognition. ⋯ Cortical morphometry significantly correlated with neuropsychological function in healthy children; certain regions/features may serve as sensitive imaging markers.
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Virtual reality (VR) is a promising tool for distraction analgesia. This study aims to compare brain perfusion patterns while patients were undergoing burn wound care in two conditions-VR distraction and control (NoVR). ⋯ Relative decrease in cerebellar perfusion based on stringent statistical threshold in the VR environment combined with improved subjective pain experience supports the hypotheses on the role of cerebellum in perception of noxious stimuli.