Mapping the aberrant brain functional connectivity in new daily persistent headache: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Abstract

Background and purpose The pathogenesis of new daily persistent headache (NDPH) is not fully understood. We aim to map aberrant functional connectivity (FC) in patients with NDPH using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods Brain structural and functional MRI data were acquired from 29 patients with NDPH and 37 well-matched healthy controls (HCs) in this cross-sectional study. Region of interest (ROI) based analysis was used to compare FC between patients and HCs, with 116 brain regions in the automated anatomical labeling (AAL) atlas were defined as seeds. The correlations between aberrant FC and patients’ clinical characteristics, and neuropsychological evaluation were also investigated. Results Compared with HCs, patients with NDPH showed increased FC in the left inferior occipital gyrus, right thalamus and decreased FC in right lingual gyrus, left superior occipital gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, left inferior occipital gyrus, right inferior occipital gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, left postcentral gyrus, right postcentral gyrus, right thalamus and right superior temporal gyrus. There were no correlation between FC of these brain regions and clinical characteristics, neuropsychological evaluation after Bonferroni correction (p > 0.05/266). Conclusions Patients with NDPH showed aberrant FC in multiple brain regions involved in perception and regulation of emotion and pain. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05334927.

Altered functional connectivity of brainstem nuclei in new daily persistent headache: Evidence from resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging

“…Forty HCs and 31 patients with NDPH were enrolled in the Headache Center, Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University from October 2020 to October 2022. This set of data was derived from previously published data 10 . Patients with NDPH were included if they met the following inclusion criteria: (1) Participants were included if they met the definition of NDPH as per the ICHD‐3 criteria 2 .…”

“…The sample size was based on the available data and previous literature. 10 We described normally distributed data as mean ± SD and non-normally distributed data as median with interquartile range. The chi-square test allowed comparison of gender between patients and HCs.…”

“…Some evidence suggested that there were abnormalities in brain function and structure in adolescents with NDPH 6 . Our previous studies showed that adult patients with NDPH have unique alterations in hemodynamics, regional homogeneity, multiple frequency amplitudes of low‐frequency fluctuation, cortical activity, and brain functional connectivity (FC) in certain brain regions 7–10 . FC is defined as the temporal coincidence of spatially distant neurophysiological events.…”

“…6 Our previous studies showed that adult patients with NDPH have unique alterations in hemodynamics, regional homogeneity, multiple frequency amplitudes of low-frequency fluctuation, cortical activity, and brain functional connectivity (FC) in certain brain regions. [7][8][9][10] FC is defined as the temporal coincidence of spatially distant neurophysiological events. Over the last decade, an increasing number of studies have applied magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to explore FC in headache disorders.…”

A state-of-the-art review of functional magnetic resonance imaging technique integrated with advanced statistical modeling and machine learning for primary headache diagnosis

“…A study ( Qiu et al, 2023 ) using structural magnetic resonance imaging combined with multimodal brain imaging analysis of magnetoencephalography found that NDPH patients had abnormal brain morphology such as cortical area, cortical thickness, and gray matter volume, accompanied by abnormal cortical neural activity. Another study ( Wang et al, 2023 ) using fMRI to map abnormal FC in NDPH patients showed abnormal FC in multiple brain regions involved in emotion and pain perception and regulation, but these abnormalities did not correlate with clinical features. All in all, the exploration appears to be only superficial.…”