ArticleNeural plasticity2021
Enhanced Temporal Coupling between Thalamus and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Mediates Chronic Low Back Pain and Depression.
Article in Neural plasticity, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Brain functional changes following spinal manipulation therapy in patients with lumbar disc herniation and chronic low back pain: a scoping review.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Altered Cortical Structure in Primary Dysmenorrhea: Cortical Thickness Mediates the Association Between Estradiol and Pain Catastrophizing.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Gonadotropin-releasing hormone alleviates chronic pain-related depression in male mice by rebalancing the anterior cingulate cortex excitatory-inhibitory processes via the protein kinase C/Erb-B2 receptor tyrosine kinase 4 pathway.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Differential alterations of thalamic subregions in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and comorbid internalizing/externalizing disorders.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Neural correlates of postoperative pain in patients with rotator cuff tear following arthroscopic surgery: a resting-state fMRI study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Near-infrared spectroscopic study of blood flow changes in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during pain relief by odor stimulation.Biophysics and physicobiology · 2025Article
- Review
- A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Integrated Study on Brain Functional Changes in a Neuropathic Pain Rat Model.eNeuro · 2024Article
- Network analysis of monoamines involved in anxiety-like behavior in a rat model of osteoarthritis.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2024Article
- Exploring Functional Connectivity in Chronic Spinal Cord Injury Patients With Neuropathic Pain Versus Without Neuropathic Pain.Neurotrauma reports · 2024Article
- Research on the multidimensional brain remodeling mechanisms at the level of brain regions, circuits, and networks in patients with chronic lower back pain caused by lumbar disk herniation.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Article
- Degree centrality-based resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging explores central mechanisms in lumbar disc herniation patients with chronic low back pain.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- Functional disruptions of the brain network in low back pain: a graph-theoretical study.Neuroradiology · 2023Article
- Thalamocortical Mechanisms Underlying Real and Imagined Acupuncture.Biomedicines · 2023Article
- Abnormal brain activity in lumbar disc herniation patients with chronic pain is associated with their clinical symptoms.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Deficits in the thalamocortical pathway associated with hypersensitivity to pain in patients with frozen shoulder.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Environmental enrichment promotes resilience to neuropathic pain-induced depression and correlates with decreased excitability of the anterior cingulate cortex.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Article
- Regional brain atrophy in patients with chronic ankle instability: A voxel-based morphometry study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex sensing analgesia.Biophysics and physicobiology · 2022Article
- Comorbid depressive symptoms can aggravate the functional changes of the pain matrix in patients with chronic back pain: A resting-state fMRI study.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Numerous neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that the brain plasticity is associated with chronic low back pain (cLBP). However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the underlying mechanisms of thalamic pathways for chronic pain and psychological effects in cLBP caused by lumbar disc herniation (LDH). Combining psychophysics and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we investigated the structural and functional brain plasticity in 36 patients with LDH compared with 38 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. We found that (1) LDH patients had increased psychophysical disturbs (i.e., depression and anxiety), and depression (Beck-Depression Inventory, BDI) was found to be an outstanding significant factor to predict chronic pain (short form of the McGill Pain Questionnaire, SF-MPQ); (2) the LDH group showed significantly smaller fractional anisotropy values in the region of posterior corona radiate while gray matter volumes were comparable in both groups; (3) resting state functional connectivity analysis revealed that LDH patients exhibited increased temporal coupling between the thalamus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which further mediate the relationship from chronic pain to depression. Our results emphasized that thalamic pathways underlying prefrontal cortex might play a key role in regulating chronic pain and depression of the pathophysiology of LDH.
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