Background and purpose: Migraine is a complex and disabling neurological disorder, the exact neurological mechanisms of which remain unclear. The thalamus is considered to be the hub of the central processing and integration of nociceptive information, as well as the modulation of these processes. Methods: A total of 48 migraineurs without aura (MWoAs) during the interictal phase and 48 age-and sex-matched healthy controls underwent restingstate functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. We utilized masked independent component analysis and seed-based functional connectivity (FC) to investigate whether MWoAs exhibited abnormal FC between subregions in the thalamus and the cortex regions. Results: The MWoAs showed significantly weaker FC between the anterior dorsal thalamic nucleus and left precuneus. Additionally, MWoAs exhibited significantly reduced FC between the ventral posterior nucleus (VPN) and left precuneus, right inferior parietal lobule (R-IPL) and right middle frontal gyrus. Furthermore, the FC Z-scores between the VPN and R-IPL were negatively correlated with pain intensity in MWoAs. The disease duration of patients was negatively correlated with the FC Z-scores between the VPN and R-IPL. Conclusion: These altered thalamocortical connectivity patterns may contribute to multisensory integration abnormalities, deficits in pain attention, cognitive evaluation and pain modulation. Pain sensitivity and disease duration are closely tied to abnormal FC between the VPN and R-IPL. Remarkably, recurrent headache attacks might contribute to this maladaptive functional plasticity closely related to pain intensity.

Background: Migraine is a severe and disabling brain disorder, and the exact neurological mechanisms remain unclear. Migraineurs have altered pain perception, and headache attacks disrupt their sensory information processing and sensorimotor integration. The altered functional connectivity of sub-regions of sensorimotor brain areas with other brain cortex associated with migraine needs further investigation. Methods: Forty-eight migraineurs without aura during the interictal phase and 48 age-and sex-matched healthy controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. We utilized seed-based functional connectivity analysis to investigate whether patients exhibited abnormal functional connectivity between subregions of sensorimotor brain areas and cortex regions. Results: We found that patients with migraineurs without aura exhibited disrupted functional connectivities between the sensorimotor areas and the visual cortex, temporal cortex, posterior parietal lobule, prefrontal areas, precuneus, cingulate gyrus, sensorimotor areas proper and cerebellum areas compared with healthy controls. In addition, the clinical data of the patients, such as disease duration, pain intensity and HIT-6 score, were negatively correlated with these impaired functional connectivities. Conclusion: In patients with migraineurs without aura, the functional connectivities between the sensorimotor brain areas and other brain regions was reduced. These disrupted functional connectivities might contribute to abnormalities in visual processing, multisensory integration, nociception processing, spatial attention and intention and dysfunction in cognitive evaluation and modulation of pain. Recurrent headache attacks might lead to the disrupted network between primary motor cortex and temporal regions and between primary somatosensory cortex and temporal regions. Pain sensitivity and patient quality of life are closely tied to the abnormal functional connectivity between sensorimotor regions and other brain areas.

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Background: Migraine is a severe and disabling brain disorder, and the exact neurological mechanisms remain unclear. Migraineurs have altered pain perception, and headache attacks disrupt their sensory information processing and sensorimotor integration. The altered functional connectivity of sub-regions of sensorimotor brain areas with other brain cortex associated with migraine needs further investigation.Methods: Forty-eight migraineurs without aura during the interictal phase and 48 age- and sex-matched healthy controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. We utilized seed-based functional connectivity analysis to investigate whether patients exhibited abnormal functional connectivity between sub-regions of sensorimotor brain areas and cortex regions.Results: We found that patients with migraineurs without aura exhibited disrupted functional connectivities between the sensorimotor areas and the visual cortex, temporal cortex, posterior parietal lobule, prefrontal areas, precuneus, cingulate gyrus, sensorimotor areas proper and cerebellum areas compared with healthy controls. In addition, the clinical data of the patients, such as disease duration, pain intensity and HIT-6 score, were negatively correlated with these impaired functional connectivities.Conclusion: In patients with migraineurs without aura, the functional connectivities between the sensorimotor brain areas and other brain regions was reduced. These disrupted functional connectivities might contribute to abnormalities in visual processing, multisensory integration, nociception processing, spatial attention and intention and dysfunction in cognitive evaluation and modulation of pain. Recurrent headache attacks might lead to the disrupted network between primary motor cortex and temporal regions and between primary somatosensory cortex and temporal regions. Pain sensitivity and patient quality of life are closely tied to the abnormal functional connectivity between sensorimotor regions and other brain areas.

Background: Somatic symptom disorders (SSDs) are common medical disorders characterized by various biological, social, and psychological pathogenic factors. Little is known about the neural correlations of SSD. Methods: In this study, we evaluated the dysfunction in 45 patients with SSD and in 43 controls by combining the regional homogeneity (ReHo) amplitudes of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) methods based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results: Compared to the controls, the patients with SSD exhibited significantly greater ReHo in the right cingulate gyrus and smaller ReHo in the right precuneus, left inferior and temporal gyrus extending to the left middle temporal gyrus and left parahippocampal gyrus, and right pons. The SSD patients showed higher ALFF values in the cingulate gyrus extending to the left medial frontal gyrus, right insula extending to the right inferior frontal gyrus, and left medial frontal gyrus extending to the left anterior cingulate cortex. Conclusions: These dysfunction areas seem to have a particular importance for the occurrence of SSD, which may result in dysfunction in self-relevant processes, emotional processing, multimodal integration, arousal, interoception, and body perception.

Background: Migraine is a severe and disabling brain disorder, and the exact neurological mechanisms remain unclear. Migraineurs have altered pain perception, and headache attacks disrupt their sensory information processing and sensorimotor integration. The altered functional connectivity (FC) of sub-regions of sensorimotor brain areas with other brain cortex associated with migraine needs further investigation. Methods: Forty-eight migraine without aura (MWoAs) during the interictal phase and 48 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. We utilized seed-based functional connectivity analysis to investigate whether patients exhibited abnormal functional connectivity between sub-regions of sensorimotor brain areas and cortex regions. Results : We found that MWoAs exhibited disrupted FC between the sensorimotor areas and the visual cortex, temporal cortex, posterior parietal lobule, prefrontal areas, precuneus, cingulate gyrus, sensorimotor areas proper and cerebellum areas compared with healthy controls. In addition, the clinical data of the patients, such as disease duration, pain intensity and HIT-6 score, were negatively correlated with these impaired FC s. Conclusion : In MWoAs, the FCs between the sensorimotor brain areas and other brain regions was reduced. These disrupted FCs might contribute to abnormalities in visual processing, multisensory integration, nociception processing, spatial attention and intention and dysfunction in cognitive evaluation and modulation of pain. Recurrent headache attacks might lead to the disrupted network between L M1 (primary motor cortex) and temporal regions and between L S1 (primary somatosensory cortex) and temporal regions. Pain sensitivity and patient quality of life are closely tied to the abnormal functional connectivity between sensorimotor regions and other brain regions.