title: Motion sickness increases functional connectivity between visual motion and nausea-associated brain regions.
abstract: The brain networks supporting nausea not yet understood. We previously found that while visual stimulation activated primary (V1) and extrastriate visual cortices (MT+/V5, coding for visual motion), increasing nausea was associated with increasing sustained activation in several brain areas, with significant co-activation for anterior insula (aIns) and mid-cingulate (MCC) cortices. Here, we hypothesized that motion sickness also alters functional connectivity between visual motion and previously identified nausea-processing brain regions. Subjects prone to motion sickness and controls completed a motion sickness provocation task during fMRI/ECG acquisition. We studied changes in connectivity between visual processing areas activated by the stimulus (MT+/V5, V1), right aIns and MCC when comparing rest (BASELINE) to peak nausea state (NAUSEA). Compared to BASELINE, NAUSEA reduced connectivity between right and left V1 and increased connectivity between right MT+/V5 and aIns and between left MT+/V5 and MCC. Additionally, the change in MT+/V5 to insula connectivity was significantly associated with a change in sympathovagal balance, assessed by heart rate variability analysis. No state-related connectivity changes were noted for the control group. Increased connectivity between a visual motion processing region and nausea/salience brain regions may reflect increased transfer of visual/vestibular mismatch information to brain regions supporting nausea perception and autonomic processing. We conclude that vection-induced nausea increases connectivity between nausea-processing regions and those activated by the nauseogenic stimulus. This enhanced low-frequency coupling may support continual, slowly evolving nausea perception and shifts toward sympathetic dominance. Disengaging this coupling may be a target for biobehavioral interventions aimed at reducing motion sickness severity.
authors.affiliation: Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.|Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Toschi
authors.affiliation: Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.|Korea Institute for Oriental Medicine (KIOM), Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Jieun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.|Department of Radiology, Logan University, Chesterfield, MO.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sclocco
authors.affiliation: Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Duggento
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA.|Department of Biomedical Engineering, Polytechnic Milan, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Barbieri
authors.affiliation: GI Unit, Center for Neurointestinal Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Braden
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.affiliation: Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.|Department of Radiology, Logan University, Chesterfield, MO.
authors.forename: Vitaly
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Napadow
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009041:Motion Sickness / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009325:Nausea / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Brain connectivity; Brain-gut interactions; Heart rate variability; MT+/V5; Sympathovagal balance