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Aberrant default mode network in patients with primary dysmenorrhea: a fMRI study

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Abstract

Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM), characterized by cramping pain in the lower abdomen, is a common gynecological disorder in women of child-bearing age. An increasing number of neuroimaging studies have emphasized that PDM is associated with functional and structural abnormalities in the regions related to the default mode network (DMN). Based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the aim of this study was to use amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and functional connectivity (FC) to investigate changes of the intrinsic brain activity in the DMN in PDM. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to assess relationships between the neuroimaging findings and clinical symptoms. Forty-eight PDM patients and thirty-eight matched healthy controls participated in this study. Compared to healthy controls, PDM patients had increased ALFF in the precuneus, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and decreased ALFF in the thalamus. PDM patients also had decreased connectivity between the precuneus and left dmPFC and right ACC, while increased connectivity between the precuneus and left thalamus. In addition, the ALFF in the left dmPFC in PDM patients positively correlated with disease duration. Our findings provide further evidence of the DMN-related abnormalities in PDM patients which might contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Life Science Research Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710071, China

    Peng Liu, Yanfei Liu, Geliang Wang, Xuejuan Yang, Lingmin Jin, Jinbo Sun & Wei Qin

  2. Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710071, China

    Peng Liu, Yanfei Liu, Geliang Wang, Xuejuan Yang, Lingmin Jin, Jinbo Sun & Wei Qin

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  1. Peng Liu
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  2. Yanfei Liu
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  3. Geliang Wang
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  4. Xuejuan Yang
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  5. Lingmin Jin
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  6. Jinbo Sun
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  7. Wei Qin
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Peng Liu or Wei Qin.

Ethics declarations

This study was approved by the West China Hospital Subcommittee on Human Studies and was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants provided written informed consent after receiving a complete description of the study.

Funding

This study was supported by National Basic Research Program of China under Grant Nos. 2014CB543203, 2015CB856403 and 2012CB518501, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 81471738, 81271644, 81471811 and 61401346, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

Conflict of interest

Peng Liu, Yanfei Liu, Geliang Wang, Xuejuan Yang, Lingmin Jin, Jinbo Sun and Wei Qin declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Liu, P., Liu, Y., Wang, G. et al. Aberrant default mode network in patients with primary dysmenorrhea: a fMRI study. Brain Imaging and Behavior 11, 1479–1485 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-016-9627-1

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