Altered Intra- and Inter-regional Functional Connectivity in Primary Dysmenorrhea

• Main Authors: Ting-Hsuan Wu, 吳亭萱
• Other Authors: Jen-Chuen Hsieh
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/49380424923918111919

碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 腦科學研究所 === 103 === Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM) is the most prevalent menstrual complaint in women of reproductive age. We had previously reported functional and structural alterations at the pain-related brain regions in PDM subjects. However, whether there are intra- and inter-regional functional connectivity (FC) changes in the brain of PDM remains elusive. Fourty-six otherwise healthy PDMs and 49 age-matched healthy female controls participated in this study. Resting-state fMRI was acquired during the menstrual (MENS, day1-3) and peri-ovulatory (POV, day 12-16) phases, respectively. Meanwhile, blood sample was taken for measuring gonadal hormone levels and each subject completed the psychological inventories. The standard preprocessing procedures of regional homogeneity (ReHo) and FC were conducted using DPARSF. The peaks of significant clusters were then selected for ReHo-seeded FC analysis, and resulting whole brain FC maps were correlated with psychological inventories. The intra- and inter-regional FC changes in PDM may implicate the adaption as a mechanism for menstrual pain rescue. The state-related FC changes might be accumulated gradually along with menstrual cycles and then lead to trait-related alterations. A trend of positive correlation between mPFC-insula FC and anxiety was observed when the menstrual pain was absent. However, the reversed trend of correlation was revealed when menstrual pain was present, which might implicate state-related adaptations to pain-primed anxiety. Trait-related ReHo reduction in vmPFC, which is a part of the DMN, of PDM during POV phase was found. The hypoconnectivity of DMN-SAL FC and hyperconnectivity of DMN-ECN FC feature a dynamic transition from affective processing of pain salience to cognitive modulation. Such transition can be adaptive for the PDM subjects.