Dataset Information

Frontal Lobe Hemodynamic Responses to Painful Stimulation: A Potential Brain Marker of Nociception.

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine patterns of both activation and deactivation that occur in the frontal lobe in response to noxious stimuli. The frontal lobe was selected because it has been shown to be activated by noxious stimuli in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. The brain region is located behind the forehead which is devoid of hair, providing a relative ease of placement for fNIRS probes on this area of the head. Based on functional magnetic resonance imaging studies showing blood-oxygenation-level dependent changes in the frontal lobes, we evaluated functional near-infrared spectroscopy measures in response to two levels of electrical pain in awake, healthy human subjects (n = 10; male = 10). Each subject underwent two recording sessions separated by a 30-minute resting period. Data collected from 7 subjects were analyzed, containing a total of 38/36 low/high intensity pain stimuli for the first recording session and 27/31 pain stimuli for the second session. Our results show that there is a robust and significant deactivation in sections of the frontal cortices. Further development and definition of the specificity and sensitivity of the approach may provide an objective measure of nociceptive activity in the brain that can be easily applied in the surgical setting.

SUBMITTER: Aasted CM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5091745 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Frontal Lobe Hemodynamic Responses to Painful Stimulation: A Potential Brain Marker of Nociception.

Aasted Christopher M CM Yücel Meryem A MA Steele Sarah C SC Peng Ke K Boas David A DA Becerra Lino L Borsook David D

PloS one 20161102 11

The purpose of this study was to use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine patterns of both activation and deactivation that occur in the frontal lobe in response to noxious stimuli. The frontal lobe was selected because it has been shown to be activated by noxious stimuli in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. The brain region is located behind the forehead which is devoid of hair, providing a relative ease of placement for fNIRS probes on this area of the head. Ba ...[more]

PMID: 27806119

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Project description:Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent functional MRI (BOLD fMRI) during electrical paw stimulation has been widely used in studies aimed at the understanding of the somatosensory network in rats. However, despite the well-established anatomical connections between cortical and subcortical structures of the sensorimotor system, most of these functional studies have been concentrated on the cortical effects of sensory electrical stimulation. BOLD fMRI study of the integration of a sensorimotor input across the sensorimotor network requires an appropriate methodology to elicit functional activation in cortical and subcortical areas owing to the regional differences in both neuronal and vascular architectures between these brain regions. Here, using a combination of low level anesthesia, long pulse duration of the electrical stimulation along with improved spatial and temporal signal to noise ratios, we provide a functional description of the main cortical and subcortical structures of the sensorimotor rat brain. With this calibrated fMRI protocol, unilateral non-noxious sensorimotor electrical hindpaw stimulation resulted in robust positive activations in the contralateral sensorimotor cortex and bilaterally in the sensorimotor thalamus nuclei, whereas negative activations were observed bilaterally in the dorsolateral caudate-putamen. These results demonstrate that, once the experimental setup allowing necessary spatial and temporal signal to noise ratios is reached, hemodynamic changes related to neuronal activity, as preserved by the combination of a soft anesthesia with a soft muscle relaxation, can be measured within the sensorimotor network. Moreover, the observed responses suggest that increasing pulse duration of the electrical stimulus adds a proprioceptive component to the sensory input that activates sensorimotor network in the brain, and that these activation patterns are similar to those induced by digits paw's movements. These findings may find application in fMRI studies of sensorimotor disorders within cortico-basal network in rodents.

Project description:High-frequency oscillations of the frontal cortex are involved in functions of the brain that fuse processed data from different sensory modules or bind them with elements stored in the memory. These oscillations also provide inhibitory connections to neural circuits that perform lower-level processes. Deficit in the performance of these oscillations has been examined as a marker for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Additionally, the neurodegenerative processes associated with AD, such as the deposition of amyloid-beta plaques, do not occur in a spatially homogeneous fashion and progress more prominently in the medial temporal lobe in the early stages of the disease. This region of the brain contains neural circuitry involved in olfactory perception. Several studies have suggested that olfactory deficit can be used as a marker for early diagnosis of AD. A quantitative assessment of the performance of the olfactory system can hence serve as a potential biomarker for Alzheimer's disease, offering a relatively convenient and inexpensive diagnosis method. This study examines the decline in the perception of olfactory stimuli and the deficit in the performance of high-frequency frontal oscillations in response to olfactory stimulation as markers for AD. Two measurement modalities are employed for assessing the olfactory performance: 1) An interactive smell identification test is used to sample the response to a sizable variety of odorants, and 2) Electroencephalography data are collected in an olfactory perception task with a pair of selected odorants in order to assess the connectivity of frontal cortex regions. Statistical analysis methods are used to assess the significance of selected features extracted from the recorded modalities as Alzheimer's biomarkers. Olfactory decline regressed to age in both healthy and mild AD groups are evaluated, and single- and multi-modal classifiers are also developed. The novel aspects of this study include: 1) Combining EEG response to olfactory stimulation with behavioral assessment of olfactory perception as a marker of AD, 2) Identification of odorants most significantly affected in mild AD patients, 3) Identification of odorants which are still adequately perceived by mild AD patients, 4) Analysis of the decline in the spatial coherence of different oscillatory bands in response to olfactory stimulation, and 5) Being the first study to quantitatively assess the performance of olfactory decline due to aging and AD in the Iranian population.

Dataset Information

Frontal Lobe Hemodynamic Responses to Painful Stimulation: A Potential Brain Marker of Nociception.

Publications

Frontal Lobe Hemodynamic Responses to Painful Stimulation: A Potential Brain Marker of Nociception.

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