Active pain coping is associated with the response in real-time fMRI neurofeedback during pain

• Published in: Brain imaging and behavior Vol. 11; no. 3; pp. 712 - 721
• Main Authors: Emmert, Kirsten, Breimhorst, Markus, Bauermann, Thomas, Birklein, Frank, Rebhorn, Cora, Van De Ville, Dimitri, Haller, Sven
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Activation analysis; Adaptation, Psychological - physiology; Adult; Biofeedback; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiopathology; Brain mapping; Brain Mapping - methods; Cerebrovascular Circulation - physiology; Cognitive ability; Coping; Correlation analysis; Cortex (cingulate); CSQ; Electroencephalography; Feedback; Female; fMRI; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Heat; Hot Temperature; Humans; Individuality; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Medical imaging; Neurofeedback; Neurofeedback - methods; Neuroimaging; Neurology; Neuropsychology; Neuroradiology; Neurosciences; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Original Research; Oxygen - blood; Pain; Pain - diagnostic imaging; Pain - physiopathology; Pain coping; Pain Measurement; Pain perception; Pain Perception - physiology; Pain sensitivity; Personality; Prefrontal cortex; Principal Component Analysis; Psychiatry; Ratings; Real time; Real-time fMRI; Scanning; Stimulation; Target recognition; Temperature effects; Visual cortex; CSQ; fMRI; Real-time fMRI; Pain; Neurofeedback; Pain coping
• ISSN: 1931-7557; 1931-7565; 1931-7565
• DOI: 10.1007/s11682-016-9547-0

Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) neurofeedback is used as a tool to gain voluntary control of activity in various brain regions. Little emphasis has been put on the influence of cognitive and personality traits on neurofeedback efficacy and baseline activity. Here, we assessed the effect of individual pain coping on rt-fMRI neurofeedback during heat-induced pain. Twenty-eight healthy subjects completed the Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ) prior to scanning. The first part of the fMRI experiment identified target regions using painful heat stimulation. Then, subjects were asked to down-regulate the pain target brain region during four neurofeedback runs with painful heat stimulation. Functional MRI analysis included correlation analysis between fMRI activation and pain ratings as well as CSQ ratings. At the behavioral level, the active pain coping (first principal component of CSQ) was correlated with pain ratings during neurofeedback. Concerning neuroimaging, pain sensitive regions were negatively correlated with pain coping. During neurofeedback, the pain coping was positively correlated with activation in the anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and visual cortex. Thermode temperature was negatively correlated with anterior insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation. In conclusion, self-reported pain coping mechanisms and pain sensitivity are a source of variance during rt-fMRI neurofeedback possibly explaining variations in regulation success. In particular, active coping seems to be associated with successful pain regulation.