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Characterization of brain deactivations elicited by transient painful and tactile stimuli using functional MRI

WANG Xiu-Zhi^1,2,3, SONG Ying-Chao^1,2,3, SU Qian⁴, LIANG Meng^1,2,3,*

¹School of Medical Technology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300203, China；²School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300203, China；³Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300203, China；⁴Department of Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin 300060, China

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to explore the specific pattern of brain deactivation elicited by painful stimuli, in contrast with that elicited by tactile stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected from 62 healthy subjects under painful and tactile stimuli with varying intensities. The brain deactivations under different conditions were identified using the general linear model. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to test whether there was a significant interaction between perceived stimulus intensity (factor 1: high intensity, low intensity) and stimulus modality (factor 2: pain, touch) on the brain deactivations. The results showed that there were significant interactions between stimulus intensity and stimulus modality on the deactivations of left medial superior frontal gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus and right middle occipital gyrus (P < 0.05, Cluster-level FWE). The deactivations induced by painful stimuli with low perceived intensity (β = −3.38 ± 0.52) were significantly stronger than those induced by painful stimuli with high perceived intensity (β = −1.22 ± 0.54) (P < 0.001), whereas the differences between the deactivations induced by tactile stimuli with different perceived intensities were not statistically significant. In addition, there were no significant differences between the deactivations elicited by painful and tactile stimuli with the same stimulus intensities. These results suggest that there is a specific relationship between the deactivations induced by painful stimuli in multiple brain regions (such as the left medial superior frontal gyrus) and the stimulus intensity, providing evidence for a deeper understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying pain perception.

Key words: functional magnetic resonance imaging; brain deactivation; pain; stimulus intensity

Received: 　　Accepted:

Corresponding author: 梁猛　　E-mail: liangmeng@tmu.edu.cn

Citing This Article：

WANG Xiu-Zhi, SONG Ying-Chao, SU Qian, LIANG Meng. Characterization of brain deactivations elicited by transient painful and tactile stimuli using functional MRI. Acta Physiol Sin 2023; 75 (4): 521-528 (in Chinese with English abstract).