The myoarchitecture of the tongue is believed to consist of a complex network of interwoven fibers, which function together to produce a near limitless array of functional deformations. These deformations contribute mechanically to speech production and to oral cavity food handling during swallowing.
UNLABELLED: The insular cortex (IC) and cingulate cortex (CC) are critically involved in pain perception. Previously we demonstrated that fibromyalgia (FM) patients have greater connectivity between the insula and default mode network at rest, and that changes in the degree of this connectivity were associated with changes in the intensity of ongoing clinical pain. In this study we more thoroughly evaluated the degree of resting-state connectivity to multiple regions of the IC in individuals with FM and healthy controls.
The sensation of itch - defined as unpleasant sensation inducing the urge to scratch - is processed by a network of different brain regions contributing to the encoding of sensory, emotional, attention-dependent, cognitive-evaluative and motivational patterns. Patients with atopic eczema show different activation patterns and kinetics compared to healthy volunteers. This review summarizes current studies investigating itch in the brain.
BACKGROUND: Chronic pain remains a significant challenge for modern health care as its pathologic mechanisms are largely unknown and preclinical animal models suffer from limitations in assessing this complex subjective experience. However, human brain neuroimaging techniques enable the assessment of functional and neurochemical alterations in patients experiencing chronic pain and how these factors may dynamically change with pharmacologic treatment.
OBJECTIVE: Central pain augmentation resulting from enhanced excitatory and/or decreased inhibitory neurotransmission is a proposed mechanism underlying the pathophysiology of functional pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia (FM). Multiple functional magnetic resonance imaging studies implicate the insula as a region of heightened neuronal activity in this condition.
Nausea is a commonly occurring symptom typified by epigastric discomfort with the urge to vomit. To date, the brain circuitry underlying the autonomic nervous system response to nausea has not been fully understood. Functional MRI (fMRI), together with a point process adaptive recursive algorithm for computation of the high-frequency (HF) index of heart rate variability (HRV) was combined to evaluate the brain circuitry underlying autonomic nervous system response to nausea.
Recent studies have highlighted the importance of analyzing spectral power in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data. Significant modulation of power has been ascribed to the performance of cognitive tasks and has been ascribed clinical significance. However, the role of confounding factors such as head motion on spectral power is not fully understood. Specifically, the spatial distribution of frequency-dependent associations between rs-fMRI power and motion is unknown.
Carpal tunnel syndrome, a median nerve entrapment neuropathy, is characterized by sensorimotor deficits. Recent reports have shown that this syndrome is also characterized by functional and structural neuroplasticity in the primary somatosensory cortex of the brain. However, the linkage between this neuroplasticity and the functional deficits in carpal tunnel syndrome is unknown.
BACKGROUND: Most neuroimaging studies exploring brain response to different acupoints have been performed in healthy adults.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare brain responses to acupuncture at local versus distal acupoints in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), who have chronic pain, versus healthy controls (HC) and correlate these responses with median nerve function.
We monitored brain activation after chronic stroke by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a novel MR-compatible, hand-induced, robotic device (MR_CHIROD). We evaluated 60 fMRI datasets on a 3 T MR system from five right-handed patients with left-sided stroke >/=6 months prior and mild to moderate hemiparesis. Patients trained the paretic right hand at approximately 75% of maximum strength with an exercise ball for 1 hour/day, 3 days/week for 4 weeks.
