Dynamic alterations of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in patients with chronic neck pain

Jiabao Zhang; Tao Xu; Linjia Wang; Dan Chen; Lisha Gong; Huafu Chen; Jiali Yu; Ling Zhao; Qing Gao

doi:10.1093/psyrad/kkab011

Dynamic alterations of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in patients with chronic neck pain

Psychoradiology. 2021 Aug 27;1(3):110-117. doi: 10.1093/psyrad/kkab011. eCollection 2021 Sep.

Authors

Jiabao Zhang¹, Tao Xu², Linjia Wang², Dan Chen², Lisha Gong¹, Huafu Chen^{3

4}, Jiali Yu¹, Ling Zhao², Qing Gao¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China.
² Acupuncture and Tuina School, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610075, China.
³ Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital to Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, China.
⁴ High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China.

Abstract

Background: The pathogenesis of neck pain in the brain, which is the fourth most common cause of disability, remains unclear. Furthermore, little is known about the characteristics of dynamic local functional brain activity in cervical pain.

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the changes of local brain activity caused by chronic neck pain and the factors leading to neck pain.

Methods: Using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) method combined with sliding window approach, we compared local brain activity that was measured by the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of 107 patients with chronic neck pain (CNP) with that of 57 healthy control participants. Five pathogenic factors were selected for correlation analysis.

Results: The group comparison results of dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (dALFF) variability showed that patients with CNP exhibited decreased dALFF variability in the left inferior temporal gyrus, the middle temporal gyrus, the angular gyrus, the inferior parietal marginal angular gyrus, and the middle occipital gyrus. The abnormal dALFF variability of the left inferior temporal gyrus was negatively correlated with the average daily working hours of patients with neck pain.

Conclusions: The findings indicated that the brain regions of patients with CNP responsible for audition, vision, memory, and emotion were subjected to temporal variability of abnormal regional brain activity. Moreover, the dALFF variability in the left inferior temporal gyrus might be a risk factor for neck pain.This study revealed the brain dysfunction of patients with CNP from the perspective of dynamic local brain activity, and highlighted the important role of dALFF variability in understanding the neural mechanism of CNP.

Keywords: chronic neck pain; dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations; dynamic variability; local brain activity; resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.