Individual differences of white matter characteristic along the anterior insula-based fiber tract circuit for pain empathy in healthy women and women with primary dysmenorrhea

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 293; p. 120624
• Main Authors: Mu, Junya, Wu, Leiming, Wang, Chenxi, Dun, Wanghuan, Hong, Zilong, Feng, Xinyue, Zhang, Ming, Liu, Jixin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.06.2024; Elsevier Limited; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Brain; Cerebral Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Chronic pain; Cortex (insular); Diffusion Tensor Imaging - methods; Dysmenorrhea - diagnostic imaging; Dysmenorrhea - physiopathology; Emotions; Empathy; Empathy - physiology; Female; Humans; Individual difference; Individuality; Insular Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Methods; Nerve Net - diagnostic imaging; Nerve Net - physiopathology; Neural Pathways - diagnostic imaging; Neural Pathways - physiopathology; Pain; Pain - diagnostic imaging; Pain - physiopathology; Pain - psychology; Pain empathy; Plasticity; Seed-based fiber streamline analysis; Statistical analysis; Substantia alba; Tractography; White matter; White Matter - diagnostic imaging; White Matter - pathology; Young Adult; Seed-based fiber streamline analysis; Individual difference; White matter; Tractography; Pain empathy
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120624

•We propose a novel seed-based fiber streamline (sFS) analysis method.•Our method produces fiber clusters with consistent geometric structures.•Our method enables tract analysis along fiber clusters of a seed-based fiber network.•Our method could predict pain empathy in participants with chronic pain. Pain empathy, defined as the ability of one person to understand another person's pain, shows large individual variations. The anterior insula is the core region of the pain empathy network. However, the relationship between white matter (WM) properties of the fiber tracts connecting the anterior insula with other cortical regions and an individual's ability to modulate pain empathy remains largely unclear. In this study, we outline an automatic seed-based fiber streamline (sFS) analysis method and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to predict the levels of pain empathy in healthy women and women with primary dysmenorrhoea (PDM). Using the sFS method, the anterior insula-based fiber tract network was divided into five fiber cluster groups. In healthy women, interindividual differences in pain empathy were predicted only by the WM properties of the five fiber cluster groups, suggesting that interindividual differences in pain empathy may rely on the connectivity of the anterior insula-based fiber tract network. In women with PDM, pain empathy could be predicted by a single cluster group. The mean WM properties along the anterior insular–rostroventral area of the inferior parietal lobule further mediated the effect of pain on empathy in patients with PDM. Our results suggest that chronic periodic pain may lead to maladaptive plastic changes, which could further impair empathy by making women with PDM feel more pain when they see other people experiencing pain. Our study also addresses an important gap in the analysis of the microstructural characteristics of seed-based fiber tract network.