Clinical NeuroscienceThe frequency and reliability of cortical activity using a novel strategy to present pressure pain stimulus over the lumbar spine
Section snippets
Study design
This paper describes a novel MR-compatible device that was used to apply pressure pain stimuli to the lumbar spine of subjects in the supine position. The frequency and reliability estimates of BOLD responses were secondary analyses of pooled data from a pilot-fMRI project. That project examined cortical responses to “moderate” pressure pain stimuli applied to the lumbar spine with the MR-compatible device.
Participants
Thirteen participants (six females; average age ± standard deviation 42.5 ± 10.5 years) were
Frequency of individual-level ROI activation
Table 2 shows the frequency of individuals demonstrating cortical activity within the six a priori brain regions, the mean peak voxel T-score and the mean cluster size around the peak voxel. Frequency of individuals showing activity ranged from 84.6% to 100%. The left primary somatosensory cortex activity was found in all 13 subjects, while both the left anterior cingulate and insular cortices had 11 of the 13 subjects. Cortical activity within all of the brain regions was found in 11 or the 13
Summary of results
The present study describes a psychophysical test procedure using pressure stimuli to the lumbar spine while the subject is supine within the MR environment. Using this approach, we found a high frequency of individuals demonstrating activity within the ACC, INS, and SI bilaterally. At the group-level we found activity within the bilateral SI and right INS. The consistency of cluster size activity and peak voxel t-scores across three consecutive fMRI runs were “fair” reliability was found for
Conclusion
Our results show a promising methodology with some limitations. There was a high frequency of individuals demonstrating cortical activity within the bilateral primary somatosensory cortex, left insular cortex and bilateral anterior cingulate cortex. Further, we found that there was good to excellent within session, scan-to-scan consistency of peak-voxel T-scores for each of the brain regions. The reliability of the cluster-size around the peak-voxel was poor to good, and not as consistent as
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Dorain L. Savino for her assistance. The primary study was funded through grants from: the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging – URMC Dean Slattery's Pilot Fund; the Central NY Research Corporation Bridge & Seed Fund; and the New York Chiropractic College Bridge & Seed Fund. CWG received funding from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) (F32 AT007729-01A1) and NCMIC Foundation while writing this manuscript. MDB received funding from NCCAM (
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Cited by (2)
Demonstration and validation of a new pressure-based MRI-safe pain tolerance device
2016, Journal of Neuroscience MethodsCitation Excerpt :There is currently no standardized way of administering pressure-based pain in the neuroimaging literature. Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), pressure has been administered to the lower back (Gay et al., 2015), foot (Petre et al., 2008), jaw (Shaefer et al., 2001), and thumbnail (Cole et al., 2010). The devices used to administer pressure in these studies are either specifically designed for one piece of anatomy (i.e., the lower back for Gay et al., 2015) or not described in enough detail to replicate for future studies.
Neuroimaging Assessment of Pain
2022, Neurotherapeutics