Mapping cortical pain circuits using very high field magnetic resonance imaging

使用极高场磁共振成像绘制皮质疼痛回路

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-06392
• 负责人: VachonPresseau, Etienne
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: McGill University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=716610
• 关键词: Mapping; cortical; pain; circuits; using

Our current understanding of how the brain translate a noxious stimulus into a pain percept is limited. Although the brain imaging technologies have improved our understanding of where pain is processed in the brain, we have a very limited understanding about the way these brain areas communicate together to give rise to pain. Thus, the pain circuits in the human brain have, so far, never been investigated. The introduction of very high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; 7-Tesla and above) revolutionized human brain mapping by increasing spatial rendering to submillimeter resolution. This allows the introduction of layer fMRI and laminar resting state functional connectivity that can improve our understanding about directional connectivity between areas of the human brain. The advantage of 7-Tesla MRI is that brain activity from the superficial layers can be dissociated from the deep layers of the cortex. This provides a tool to measure directional connectivity between a seed located in the deep layers of a brain area (efferent connections) and a target located in the superficial layers of another brain area (afferent connections). These advances can contribute to identify functional circuits in the brain. The overarching goal of this research program is to use very high field layer fMRI to map the pain pathways in the human brain. Study 1-3: The short-term goals are to implement the layers fMRI methodology. We will select the postcentral gyrus to validate the methods. The specific aims are to dissociate the superficial layers (sensory discriminative) from the deep layers (motor), reproduce the somatotopic organisation (arm Vs leg), and assess the monotonic brain response after increasing the temperature of the stimuli. Study 4: The overall long-term objective is to use this methodology to map afferent and efferent connections between the superficial and deep layers to infer directional connectivity between brain areas. Significance: This represents a unique opportunity increase our understanding about the pain system, especially at the cortical level, where we currently lack theories about pain perception. So far, the pain pathways in humans and their association with the multiple components of pain remains to be better examined. Increasing our understanding about the layer specific activations and their directional connections is important for brain imaging to move from where' pain is process towards how' pain is process in the human brain.

我们目前对大脑如何将有害刺激转化为疼痛感知的理解是有限的。尽管大脑成像技术已经提高了我们对大脑中疼痛处理位置的理解，但我们对这些大脑区域如何相互交流从而产生疼痛的理解非常有限。因此，到目前为止，人类大脑中的疼痛回路还没有被研究过。