A joint research group consisting of Associate Professor Tomihiro Osumi of the Kio University Neurorehabilitation Research Center, Professor Hitoshi Hirata and Lecturer Katsuyuki Iwazuki of the Nagoya University School of Medicine, and Associate Professor Masahiko Sumiya of the University of Tokyo Hospital has investigated the brain's default mode at rest. We revealed that network abnormalities are closely related to pain in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).
CRPS is a condition in which severe pain is caused by relatively minor trauma or surgery, and research to date has shown that it can be exacerbated or prolonged by some kind of abnormality in brain function.In particular, there have been many reports on abnormalities in brain activity during a "resting state" when people are not doing anything, but most of these are research results obtained using large-scale equipment such as fMRI and MEG.Since it was not clear what kind of abnormalities are seen in CRPS patients from the electroencephalogram data used in daily clinical practice, this group measured the resting electroencephalogram activity in CRPS and conducted microstate analysis. We used this to observe abnormalities in the brain wave network.
As a result, we found a significant correlation between the parameters of the topographic pattern, which is thought to be composed of the default mode network, and the intensity of pain, among the topographic patterns calculated by resting EEG microstate analysis. .This suggests that abnormalities in the default mode network may exacerbate the pain of CRPS.
Furthermore, EEG measurements were taken 6 months after the first EEG measurement, and it was confirmed that the default mode network improved and the pain eased.It is also believed that there is a relationship between improvement of the default mode network and alleviation of pain in CRPS.
This study revealed the possibility of observing brain wave network abnormalities that occur in CRPS by utilizing brain wave data used in daily medical care.This result is expected to lead to consideration of rehabilitation methods to improve the brain wave network abnormalities that occur in CRPS.
Paper information:[Clinical EEG and Neuroscience] Resting-state Electroencephalography Microstates Correlate with Pain Intensity in Patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
