Allodynia and Descending Pain Modulation in Migraine: A Resting State Functional Connectivity Analysis

摘要

ObjectiveMost migraineurs develop cutaneous allodynia during migraines and many have cutaneous sensitization between attacks. Atypical pain modulation via the descending pain system may contribute to this sensitization and allodynia. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that compared to non-allodynic migraineurs, allodynic migraineurs have atypical periaqueductal gray (PAG) and nucleus cuneiformis (NCF) resting state functional connectivity (rs-fc) with other pain processing regions.DesignTen minutes resting-state BOLD data were collected from 38 adult migraineurs and 20 controls. Seed-based analyses compared whole-brain rs-fc with PAG and with NCF in migraineurs with severe ictal allodynia (n=8) to migraineurs with no ictal allodynia (n=8). Correlations between the strength of functional connections that differed between severely allodynic and non-allodynic migraineurs with allodynia severity were determined for all migraineurs (n=38). PAG and NCF rs-fc in all migraineurs was compared to rs-fc in controls.