Poster No:
2056
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Natalia Egorova-Brumley1, Luiza Bonfim Pacheco1, Gabby Knox1, Fiona Dobson1, Michelle Hall2
Institutions:
1University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 2University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Sleep disturbance is a known comorbidity of chronic pain, yet specific neurobiological correlates of the sleep-pain relationship remain poorly understood. The left nucleus accumbens has recently emerged as a subcortical signature of chronic pain transition. In parallel, the nucleus accumbens has been implicated in the effect of sleep deprivation and fragmentation on pain perception in healthy individuals. To further understand the role of the nucleus accumbens in pain and sleep, the current study investigated whether the nucleus accumbens volume in chronic pain is associated with sleep quality and quantity.
Methods:
Left and right nucleus accumbens volumes were estimated using FreeSurfer in N=34 participants with hip osteoarthritis (aged 60+/-12 years, 23 females). Associations between clinical pain measured with the numeric rating scale (0-10) and various subjective sleep measures, including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) global score, sleep efficiency, as well as sleep duration were examined.
Results:
Controlling for age, sex and total intracranial volume, a significant association was observed between the left (but not the right) nucleus accumbens volume and the global PSQI score (r=-0.55, p=0.001), as well as sleep efficiency (r=0.41, p=0.021). Pain severity alone did not significantly correlate with the nucleus accumbens volume. In participants with regular sleep duration (6-9 hours), there was higher left nucleus accumbens volume than in those sleeping more/less than the recommended amount (p=0.042).
Conclusions:
Our results confirm the role of the left nucleus accumbens in the sleep-pain relationship, by providing novel evidence for its association with sleep quality and quantity in chronic pain. This finding also suggests that the left nucleus accumbens as an established biomarker of chronic pain could be specifically influenced by sleep.
Perception, Attention and Motor Behavior:
Perception: Pain and Visceral 1
Sleep and Wakefulness 2
Keywords:
MRI
Pain
STRUCTURAL MRI
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Resting state
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Patients
Was this research conducted in the United States?
No
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
Yes
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
NOTE: Any animal studies without IACUC approval will be automatically rejected.
Not applicable
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Structural MRI
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
3.0T
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
Free Surfer
Provide references using APA citation style.
n/a
No