Visual network alterations in brain functional connectivity in chronic low back pain: A resting state functional connectivity and machine learning study.

Journal: NeuroImage. Clinical
Published Date: Jan 1, 2019

Abstract

Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is associated with widespread functional and structural changes in the brain. This study aims to investigate the resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) changes of visual networks in cLBP patients and the feasibility of distinguishing cLBP patients from healthy controls using machine learning methods. cLBP (n = 90) and control individuals (n = 74) were enrolled and underwent resting-state BOLD fMRI scans. Primary, dorsal, and ventral visual networks derived from independent component analysis were used as regions of interest to compare resting state functional connectivity changes between the cLBP patients and healthy controls. We then applied a support vector machine classifier to distinguish the cLBP patients and control individuals. These results were further verified in a new cohort of subjects. We found that the functional connectivity between the primary visual network and the somatosensory/motor areas were significantly enhanced in cLBP patients. The rsFC between the primary visual network and S1 was negatively associated with duration of cLBP. In addition, we found that the rsFC of the visual network could achieve a classification accuracy of 79.3% in distinguishing cLBP patients from HCs, and these results were further validated in an independent cohort of subjects (accuracy = 66.7%). Our results demonstrate significant changes in the rsFC of the visual networks in cLBP patients. We speculate these alterations may represent an adaptation/self-adjustment mechanism and cross-model interaction between the visual, somatosensory, motor, attention, and salient networks in response to cLBP. Elucidating the role of the visual networks in cLBP may shed light on the pathophysiology and development of the disorder.

Authors

  • Wei Shen
    Department of General Surgery, Wuxi People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, China.
  • Yiheng Tu
    Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA; Department of Radiology, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
  • Randy L Gollub
    Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
  • Ana Ortiz
    Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
  • Vitaly Napadow
    Department of Radiology, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
  • Siyi Yu
    Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
  • Georgia Wilson
    Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
  • Joel Park
    Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
  • Courtney Lang
    Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
  • Minyoung Jung
    Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
  • Jessica Gerber
    Department of Radiology, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
  • Ishtiaq Mawla
    Department of Radiology, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
  • Suk-Tak Chan
    Department of Radiology, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
  • Ajay D Wasan
    Department of Anesthesiology, Center for Pain Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
  • Robert R Edwards
    Pain Management Center, Departments of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Ted Kaptchuk
    Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
  • Shasha Li
  • Bruce Rosen
    Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.
  • Jian Kong
    Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA; Department of Radiology, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA. Electronic address: jkong2@mgh.harvard.edu.

Keywords

External Resources

Popular Topics
Recent Journals