Medio-dorsal thalamic dysconnectivity in chronic knee pain: A possible mechanism for negative affect and pain comorbidity.

The reciprocal interaction between pain and negative affect is acknowledged but pain-related alterations in brain circuits involved in this interaction, such as the mediodorsal thalamus (MDThal), still require a better understanding. We sought to investigate the relationship between MDThal circuitry, negative affect and pain severity in chronic musculoskeletal pain. For these analyses, participants with chronic knee pain (CKP, n = 74) and without (n = 36) completed magnetic resonance imaging scans and questionnaires.

Resting-state functional connectivity correlates of anxiety co-morbidity in major depressive disorder.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is frequently co-morbid with anxiety disorders. The co-morbid state has poorer functional outcomes and greater resistance to first line treatments, highlighting the need for novel treatment targets. This systematic review examined differences in resting-state brain connectivity associated with anxiety comorbidity in young- and middle-aged adults with MDD, with the aim of identifying novel targets for neuromodulation treatments, as these treatments are thought to work partly by altering dysfunctional connectivity pathways.

Easy to interpret coordinate based meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies: Analysis of brain coordinates (ABC).

Background: Functional MRI and voxel-based morphometry are important in neuroscience. They are technically challenging with no globally optimal analysis method, and the multiple approaches have been shown to produce different results. It is useful to be able to meta-analyse results from such studies that tested a similar hypothesis potentially using different analysis methods.

Connectivity-Guided Theta Burst Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Versus Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Treatment-Resistant Moderate to Severe Depression: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Protocol and SARS-CoV-2-Induced Changes for a Randomized Double-blind Controlled Trial.

Background: Depression is a substantial health and economic burden. In approximately one-third of patients, depression is resistant to first-line treatment; therefore, it is essential to find alternative treatments. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a neuromodulatory treatment involving the application of magnetic pulses to the brain that is approved in the United Kingdom and the United States in treatment-resistant depression.

Brain perfusion patterns are altered in chronic knee pain: a spatial covariance analysis of arterial spin labelling MRI.

Chronic musculoskeletal pain is a common problem globally. Current evidence suggests that maladapted central pain pathways are associated with pain chronicity, for example, in postoperative pain after knee replacement. Other factors such as low mood, anxiety, and tendency to catastrophize are also important contributors.

Coordinate based meta-analysis of networks in neuroimaging studies.

Meta-analysis of summary results from published neuroimaging studies independently testing a common hypothesis is performed using coordinate based meta-analysis (CBMA), which tests for consistent activation (in the case of functional MRI studies) of the same anatomical regions. Using just the reported coordinates it is also possible to meta-analyse coactivated regions to reveal a network-like structure of coordinate clusters (network nodes) distributed at the coactivated locations and a measure of the coactivation strength (network edges), which is determined by the presence/absence of reported activation. Here a new coordinate-based method to estimate a network of coactivations is detailed, which utilises the Z score accompanying each reported.

Altered connectivity of the right anterior insula drives the pain connectome changes in chronic knee osteoarthritis.

Resting-state functional connectivity (FC) has proven a powerful approach to understand the neural underpinnings of chronic pain, reporting altered connectivity in 3 main networks: the default mode network (DMN), central executive network, and the salience network (SN). The interrelation and possible mechanisms of these changes are less well understood in chronic pain. Based on emerging evidence of its role to drive switches between network states, the right anterior insula (rAI, an SN hub) may play a dominant role in network connectivity changes underpinning chronic pain.

Imaging pain relief in osteoarthritis (IPRO): protocol of a double-blind randomised controlled mechanistic study assessing pain relief and prediction of duloxetine treatment outcome.

Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA) pain is a major cause of long-term disability and chronic pain in the adult population. One in five patients does not receive satisfactory pain relief, which reflects the complexity of chronic pain and the current lack of understanding of mechanisms of chronic pain. Recently, duloxetine has demonstrated clinically relevant pain relief, but only in half of treated patients with OA.

Coordinate based random effect size meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies.

Low power in neuroimaging studies can make them difficult to interpret, and Coordinate based meta-analysis (CBMA) may go some way to mitigating this issue. CBMA has been used in many analyses to detect where published functional MRI or voxel-based morphometry studies testing similar hypotheses report significant summary results (coordinates) consistently. Only the reported coordinates and possibly t statistics are analysed, and statistical significance of clusters is determined by coordinate density.

Associations of limbic-affective brain activity and severity of ongoing chronic arthritis pain are explained by trait anxiety.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies (fMRI) have transformed our understanding of central processing of evoked pain but the typically used block and event-related designs are not best suited to the study of ongoing pain. Here we used arterial spin labelling (ASL) for cerebral blood flow mapping to characterise the neural correlates of perceived intensity of osteoarthritis (OA) pain and its interrelation with negative affect. Twenty-six patients with painful knee OA and twenty-seven healthy controls underwent pain phenotyping and ASL MRI at 3T.

Cingulate GABA levels inversely correlate with the intensity of ongoing chronic knee osteoarthritis pain.

Background: This study aims to investigate the role of the mid-anterior cingulate cortex γ-aminobutyric acid levels in chronic nociceptive pain. The molecular mechanisms of pain chronification are not well understood. In fibromyalgia, low mid-anterior cingulate cortex γ-aminobutyric acid was associated with high pain suggesting a role of prefrontal disinhibition.

Functional reorganisation in chronic pain and neural correlates of pain sensitisation: A coordinate based meta-analysis of 266 cutaneous pain fMRI studies.

Maladaptive mechanisms of pain processing in chronic pain conditions (CP) are poorly understood. We used coordinate based meta-analysis of 266 fMRI pain studies to study functional brain reorganisation in CP and experimental models of hyperalgesia. The pattern of nociceptive brain activation was similar in CP, hyperalgesia and normalgesia in controls.

Coordinate based meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging data using activation likelihood estimation; full width half max and group comparisons.

Coordinate based meta-analysis (CBMA) is used to find regions of consistent activation across fMRI and PET studies selected for their functional relevance to a hypothesis. Results are clusters of foci where multiple studies report in the same spatial region, indicating functional relevance. Contrast meta-analysis finds regions where there are consistent differences in activation pattern between two groups.

Critical incidents, successes, and challenges of community-based dental education.

In 2006, the Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health at A.T. Still University (ATSU ASDOH) implemented an intensive community-based education program for its inaugural fourth-year students called the Integrated Community Service Partnerships (ICSP) program.

The Arizona model: a new paradigm for dental schools.

The traditional method for the delivery of didactic instruction and patient care in dental schools has come under fire from a number of sources over the past several years. The American Dental Education Association and others have outlined numerous issues impeding the swift progression of student learning through the dental curriculum. Declining state revenues allotted to dental education, the increasing shortage of dental faculty, and the management of student learning in an already overcrowded dental school curriculum have led to the investigation of strategies that address solutions to these and other shortcomings in the current milieu of dental education.

Adequacy of medical school gross anatomy education as perceived by certain postgraduate residency programs and anatomy course directors.

In light of the many changes that have been made in medical gross anatomy instruction, an attempt was made to determine the adequacy of medical student preparation in gross anatomy upon arrival at a postgraduate residency program and whether the adequacy of preparation had changed in the last 10 years. To address these questions, a survey was mailed to all of the programs in four postgraduate residencies in the United States. This survey requested information about the importance of gross anatomy to the discipline, the adequacy of resident preparation, how today's residents compare to those of 10 years ago, and in what areas they are deficient.