ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Pathology
This article is part of the Research TopicRegulation of intervertebral disc homeostasis and the pathological or pathophysiological alterations under various harmful stimuli during aging processView all 13 articles
Application of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Identifying Responsible Brain Regions Associated with Spinal Diseases related Pain
Provisionally accepted
- 1Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
- 2School of Rehabilitation Science, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
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ABSTRACT Background: Spinal diseases related pain represents a critical clinical issue that demands urgent resolution. Current treatment and assessment strategies predominantly focus on peripheral mechanisms. The application of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) offers a promising approach to identifying potential central targets for intervention. Methods: We retrospectively included 31 patients with spinal diseases related pain and 32 controls with non-spinal, orthopedic complaints (no chronic neurological or psychiatric disorders). All participants underwent resting-state brain fMRI (eyes closed, awake). We quantified amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) with mean normalization (mALFF) and z-transformation (zALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo; 27-voxel neighborhood), seed-based functional connectivity (FC; pre/postcentral seeds), and degree centrality (DC; binary and weighted). Between group tests used voxel-wise two-sample t_tests with Gaussian Random Field (GRF) correction. Results: Patient group was associated with increased m/zALFF in right cerebellar lobule IX and right Superior Frontal Gyrus, medial part , and lower activity in bilateral postcentral gyri and the Cuneus. , decreased m/zALFF in bilateral postcentral gyri. ReHo analysis confirmed reduced local synchrony in postcentral regions , spatially overlapping with ALFF findings. FC analyses revealed enhanced cerebellar-thalamic connectivity (Crus1/2, thalamus) but reduced connectivity in sensorimotor and higher-order cortical networks. DC showed hyperconnectivity in left cerebellar Crus I with reduced Superior Frontal Orbital (Frontal_Sup_Orb). All findings survived GRF correction at the pre_specified thresholds. Conclusions: Resting-state brain fMRI indicates a cerebello-thalamo-cortical alteration pattern in spinal diseases related pain featuring cerebellar involvement, prefrontal subspecialization, and multilevel sensorimotor disruption. These cross-sectional associations may inform hypothesis-generation for future neuromodulation studies and provide candidate biomarkers for monitoring, pending prospective validation.
Keywords: brain map, spinal diseases related pain, responsible brain region, functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain remodeling
Received: 01 Mar 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Wang, Ren, Sun, Zhang and Zheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaopei Sun, sarapennysun@yeah.net
Jun-Peng Zhang, zhangjunpeng@shutcm.edu.cn
Yuehuan Zheng, flinggaga@163.com
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