PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Alexander Otti
AU  - Harald Guendel
AU  - Peter Henningsen
AU  - Claus Zimmer
AU  - Afra M. Wohlschlaeger
AU  - Michael Noll-Hussong
TI  - Functional network connectivity of pain-related resting state networks in somatoform pain disorder: an exploratory fMRI study
AID  - 10.1503/jpn.110187
DP  - 2013 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
PG  - 57--65
VI  - 38
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jpn.ca/content/38/1/57.short
4100  - http://jpn.ca/content/38/1/57.full
SO  - J Psychiatry Neurosci2013 Jan 01; 38
AB  - Background: Without stimulation, the human brain spontaneously produces highly organized, low-frequency fluctuations of neural activity in intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs). Furthermore, without adequate explanatory nociceptive input, patients with somatoform pain disorder experience pain symptoms, thus implicating a central dysregulation of pain homeostasis. The present study aimed to test whether interactions among pain-related ICNs, such as the default mode network (DMN), cingular–insular network (CIN) and sensorimotor network (SMN), are altered in somatoform pain during resting conditions.Methods: Patients with somatoform pain disorder and healthy controls underwent resting functional magnetic resonance imaging that lasted 370 seconds. Using a data-driven approach, the ICNs were isolated, and the functional network connectivity (FNC) was computed.Results: Twenty-one patients and 19 controls enrolled in the study. Significant FNC (p < 0.05, corrected for false discovery rate) was detected between the CIN and SMN/anterior DMN, the anterior DMN and posterior DMN/SMN, and the posterior DMN and SMN. Interestingly, no group differences in FNC were detected.Limitations: The most important limitation of this study was the relatively short resting state paradigm.Conclusion: To our knowledge, our results demonstrated for the first time the resting FNC among pain-related ICNs. However, our results suggest that FNC signatures alone are not able to characterize the putative central dysfunction underpinning somatoform pain disorder.