title: Corticostriatal functional connectivity predicts transition to chronic back pain.
abstract: The mechanism of brain reorganization in pain chronification is unknown. In a longitudinal brain imaging study, subacute back pain (SBP) patients were followed over the course of 1 year. When pain persisted (SBPp, in contrast to recovering SBP and healthy controls), brain gray matter density decreased. Initially greater functional connectivity of nucleus accumbens with prefrontal cortex predicted pain persistence, implying that corticostriatal circuitry is causally involved in the transition from acute to chronic pain.
authors: Department of Physiology, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
authors: Marwan N
authors: MN
authors: Baliki
authors: Bogdan
authors: B
authors: Petre
authors: Souraya
authors: S
authors: Torbey
authors: Kristina M
authors: KM
authors: Herrmann
authors: Lejian
authors: L
authors: Huang
authors: Thomas J
authors: TJ
authors: Schnitzer
authors: Howard L
authors: HL
authors: Fields
authors: A Vania
authors: AV
authors: Apkarian
mesh_terms: D059787:Acute Pain / Q000503:physiopathology; D000328:Adult; D001416:Back Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015415:Biomarkers; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000503:physiopathology; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005544:Forecasting / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000503:physiopathology; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000295:instrumentation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers