Association between seated trunk control and cortical sensorimotor white matter brain changes in patients with chronic low back pain
John R. Gilliam, Pradeep K. Sahu, Jennifer M. C. Vendemia, Sheri P. Silfies
Abstract
Trunk control involves integration of sensorimotor information in the brain. Individuals with chronic low back pain (cLBP) have impaired trunk control and show differences in brain structure and function in sensorimotor areas compared with healthy controls (HC).
Introduction
Trunk control requires integrating visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular sensory information [1] and is historically recognized to involve spinal, cerebellar, and subcortical structures [2, 3]. More recent neuroimaging and electroencephalography data have unequivocally demonstrated trunk control requires the involvement of primary and secondary cortical sensorimotor brain regions [4–15].
Materials and methods
A sample of 32 participants with cLBP and 35 demographically similar [age (±5 years), sex, and BMI (±2 kg/m2) matched] HC were recruited from the local community (Table 1).
Results
No between-group differences were observed for sex, age, or BMI. Group differences were observed for measures of depression, pain catastrophizing, and state and trait anxiety, where the cLBP group demonstrated higher scores on these measures (Table 1).
Discussion
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to use dMRI to provide insight into the relationships between white matter structure and seated trunk control in cLBP. We compared seated trunk control and cortical sensorimotor WM between persons with cLBP and matched HC.
Conclusion
Persons with cLBP demonstrate worse trunk control performance compared with HC. Although no differences in cortical sensorimotor white matter were observed between groups, cortical sensorimotor microstructure and anatomical connectivity.
Citation: Gilliam JR, Sahu PK, Vendemia JMC, Silfies SP (2024) Association between seated trunk control and cortical sensorimotor white matter brain changes in patients with chronic low back pain. PLoS ONE 19(8): e0309344. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0309344
Editor: Ravi Shankar Yerragonda Reddy, King Khalid University, SAUDI ARABIA
Received: May 7, 2024; Accepted: August 11, 2024; Published: August 29, 2024
Copyright: © 2024 Gilliam et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: The dataset used for this analysis is available at Open Science Framework DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/NW32P.
Funding: This publication was made possible in part by Grant Number T32-GM081740 from NIH-NIGMS (JRG) and Grant Number R01-HD095959 from NIH-NICHD (JMCV & SPS). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIGMS, NICHD, or NIH. This research was funded in part by a Promotion of Doctoral Studies (PODS) II Scholarship from the Foundation for Physical Therapy Research (JRG). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
List of abbreviations: cLBP, chronic low back pain; HC, healthy control; dMRI, diffusion magnetic resonance imaging; WM, white matter; CEA95, 95% confidence ellipse area; M1, primary motor cortex; S1, primary somatosensory cortex; FA, fractional anisotropy; COP, center of pressure; EO, eyes open; EC, eyes closed; TR, response time; TE, echo time; ms, millisecond; mm, millimeter; AAL, Automated Anatomical Labeling; HMAT, human motor area template; SMC, supplementary motor cortex; PO, parietal operculum; FSL, FMRIB software library; ROI, region of interest; MD, mean diffusivity; AD, axial diffusivity; RD, radial diffusivity.
Source: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0309344#abstract0
