In previous studies clustering of the three branches of the trigeminal nerve in brainstem were shown, cerebellum and periaqueductal gray. To further evaluate higher cortical structures, which were not covered by our previous field of view (FOV) and to further investigate the identified 'subnuclei' of the spinal trigeminal nucleus, here the aim is to scan the whole brain as well as the brainstem and the upper spinal cord during trigeminal nociceptive as well as non-nociceptive electrical stimulation of all three branches of the trigeminal nerve (and the arm as a somatic control site) during acquisition of BOLD-fMRI in humans.
Preprocessing and processing of the MR data will follow our previous publications (Mehnert et al 2023, Mehnert et al 2024)
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
40
Electric stimulation with a Digitimer DS7AH HV Current Stimulator delivered with 4 shielded electrodes mounted on the participants head and arm
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
Hamburg, Germany
Statistical Parametric Maps calculated from the fMRI data on brainstem level
At an small volume corrected threshold of p\<0.05 will be reproduce activation of all previously shown subnuclei of the spinal trigeminal nucleus for all three trigeminal branches using a sphere of 10 mm around previously published (Mehnert et al, 2023) MNI coordinates.
Time frame: only 1 visit
Statistical Parametric Maps calculated from the fMRI data of higher cortical brain structures
Anterior and posterior insula, the cingulate cortex and S1/S2 will show significant activation at an small-volume corrected threshold of p\<0.05
Time frame: only 1 visit
Functional connectivty between insula and spinal trigeminal cortex
For each of the trigeminal subnuclei we will calculate the functional connectivity to higher cortical areas, such as the anterior and posterior insula, the cingulate cortex and S1/S2 with a psycho-physiological interaction analysis (PPI) for painful as well as non-painful stimulation to characterize the function of each subnucleus.
Time frame: only 1 visit
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