AUTHOR=González-Roldán Ana M. , Terrasa Juan L. , Sitges Carolina , van der Meulen Marian , Anton Fernand , Montoya Pedro 

TITLE=Age-Related Changes in Pain Perception Are Associated With Altered Functional Connectivity During Resting State

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2020.00116

DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2020.00116

ISSN=1663-4365

ABSTRACT=Aging affects pain experience and brain functioning. However, how aging lead to changes in pain perception and brain functional connectivity have not yet been completely understood. To investigate resting-state and pain perception changes in old and young participants, this study employed region of interest (ROI) to ROI resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) analysis of omaging data by using regions implicated in sensory and affective dimensions of pain, descending pain modulation, and the default-mode networks. Thirty-seven older (66.86±4.04 years; 16 males) and 38 younger healthy participants (20.74±4.15 years; 19 males) underwent 10 minutes’ eyes-closed resting-state scanning. We examined the relationship between rsFC parameters with pressure pain thresholds. Older participants showed higher pain thresholds than younger. Regarding rsFC, older adults displayed increased connectivity of pain-related sensory brain regions in comparison to younger participants: increased rsFC between bilateral primary somatosensory area (SI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and between SI(L) and secondary somatosensory area (SII)-(R) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Moreover, decreased connectivity in the older compared to younger group was found among descending modulatory regions: between amygdala(R) and bilateral insula(R), thalamus(R), ACC, and amygdala(L); between amygdala(L) and insula(R) and bilateral thalamus; between ACC and bilateral insula, and between periaqueductal gray and bilateral thalamus. Regarding the default-mode network (DMN), posterior parietal cortex and lateral parietal(R) were more strongly connected in the older group than in the younger group. Correlational analyses also showed that SI(L)-SII(R) rsFC was positively associated with pressure pain thresholds in older participants. In conclusion, these findings suggest a compensatory mechanism for the sensory changes that typically accompanies aging. Furthermore, older participants showed reduced functional connectivity between key nodes of the descending pain inhibitory pathway.