Pain Does Not Follow the Boxcar Model: Temporal Dynamics of the BOLD FMRI Signal during Constant Current Painful Electric Nerve Stimulation

摘要

The temporal dynamics of the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal, especially for painful stimulations, is not completely understood. In this study, the BOLD signal response to a long painful electrical stimulation (a continuous painful stimulation of 2 minutes) is directly compared to that of a short painful stimulation (four 30-s periods of painful stimulation interleaved with 30-s rest) in an effort to further probe the relationship between the temporal dynamics of the BOLD signal during constant intensity pain stimulation. Time course analysis showed that both stimulation protocols produced three similarly timed peaks in both data sets, suggesting an early and delayed BOLD response to painful stimulation initiation, and a response related to stimulus termination. Despite the continuous stimulation, the BOLD signal returned to baseline in the two-minute task. Even with this signal discrepancy, however, the activation maps of the two pain tasks differed only slightly, suggesting that the bulk of the activation is determined by the sharp rise in BOLD signal with stimulus onset. These findings imply that the BOLD signal response time course is not directly reflective of pain perception.