The Somatosensory Link in Fibromyalgia: Functional Connectivity of the Primary Somatosensory Cortex Is Altered by Sustained Pain and Is Associated With Clinical/Autonomic Dysfunction

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111091/1/art39043.pd

The Somatosensory Link in Fibromyalgia: Functional Connectivity of the Primary Somatosensory Cortex Is Altered by Sustained Pain and Is Associated With Clinical/Autonomic Dysfunction

Objective Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic functional pain syndrome characterized by widespread pain, significant pain catastrophizing, sympathovagal dysfunction, and amplified temporal summation for evoked pain. While several studies have found altered resting brain connectivity in FM, studies have not specifically probed the somatosensory system, and its role in both somatic and non-somatic FM symptomatology. Our objective was to evaluate resting primary somatosensory cortex (S1) connectivity, and explore how sustained, evoked deep-tissue pain modulates this connectivity. Methods We acquired fMRI and electrocardiography data from FM patients and healthy controls (HC) during rest (REST) and sustained mechanical pressure pain (PAIN) over the lower leg. Functional connectivity associated with different S1 subregions was calculated, while S1leg (leg representation) connectivity was contrast between REST and PAIN, and correlated with clinically-relevant measures in FM. Results At REST, FM showed decreased connectivity between multiple ipsilateral and cross-hemispheric S1 subregions, which was correlated with clinical pain severity. PAIN, compared to REST, produced increased S1legconnectivity to bilateral anterior insula in FM, but not in HC. Moreover, in FM, sustained pain-altered S1legconnectivity to anterior insula was correlated with clinical/behavioral pain measures and autonomic responses. Conclusion Our study demonstrates that both somatic and non-somatic dysfunction in FM, including clinical pain, pain catastrophizing, autonomic dysfunction, and amplified temporal summation, are all closely linked with the degree to which evoked deep-tissue pain alters S1 connectivity to salience/affective pain processing regions. Additionally, diminished connectivity between S1 subregions at REST in FM may result from ongoing widespread clinical pain

Exploration of cytoplasmic inheritance as a contributor to maternal effects in Welsh Mountain sheep

Cytoplasmic effects were investigated using a dataset comprising three breeding groups of Welsh Mountain sheep. The influences of cytoplasmic effects were investigated by comparing animal models with and without a random term representing cytoplasmic effects. The models were applied to the eight-week weight, scan weight (mean 152 days) and ultrasonically scanned muscle and fat depth. The animal model included the random effects of animals and the maternal additive genetic, maternal permanent environmental and maternal common environmental effects. In total there were 24 569, 10 509, 8389, 8369 records for the eight-week weight, scan weight, muscle depth and fat depth respectively. Four subsets were further analysed containing maternal lines with at least five, ten, fifteen and twenty animals/line. There was no evidence of cytoplasmic effects on eight-week weight and muscle depth. Cytoplasmic effects contributed 1–2% of phenotypic variance for scan-weight and fat depth, but the effect was generally non-significant (${\rm P} >0.05$). As the number of animals per maternal line increased, the magnitude of cytoplasmic effects also increased for these traits. Direct heritability estimates for the eight-week weight, scan weight, muscle depth and fat depth using the full dataset were 0.18, 0.25, 0.24, and 0.21 respectively

Improving models of wood density by including genetic effects : a case study in Douglas-fir

Many models have been published for relating wood characteristics, such as wood density, to growth traits. At a tree population level, ring density is known to be significantly correlated with cambial age and ring width. However, at the individual tree level, the predictive value of models based on this relationship is usually poor, as there is an important, so-called "tree effect"in the residuals of such models. We hypothesise that this effect arises from within population genetic variability, and have tested this hypothesis by adjusting linear models for Douglas-fir populations with different levels of genetic variability, ranging from provenances to clones. The addition of a genetic effect significantly increased the predictive value of the model and decreased the residuals. At the clone level, for example, inclusion of the genetic effect increased the explained variance (adjusted R2 value) from 20% to 54% . It is suggested that most of the observed variability in the wood density/growth relationship of Douglas-fir populations has a genetic origin.De nombreux modèles ont été publiés, mettant en relation chez de nombreuses espèces des propriétés du bois avec des caractères de croissance. À l'échelle de la population d'arbres, on sait que la densité d'un cerne dépend significativement de sa largeur et de son âge cambial. Toutefois, la valeur prédictive de ce type de relation est généralement faible, à cause de l'existence d'un fort effet "arbre "sur les résidus du modèle. Nous proposons l'hypothèse que cet effet arbre est lié à l'existence d'une variabilité génétique intra-population. Nous avons testé cette hypothèse en ajustant un modèle linéaire à plusieurs populations de douglas structurées génétiquement, selon des niveaux génétiques différents variant de la provenance au clone. L'ajout d'un paramètre génétique au modèle permet d'augmenter significativement la qualité prédictive du modèle, et diminue les résidus. Au niveau clone, par exemple, la variance expliquée par le modèle passe de 20 à 54 % . Nous en déduisons que la plus grande partie de la variabilité observée pour la relation densité-croissance chez le Douglas est d'origine génétique

Estimations from HP images

Estimated parameters from traditional and smartphone hemispherical images. Data used for analysis and GLMMs calibration

EnhanceHP thresholding for smartphone pictures

Script for batch processing of all diagonals and merged smartphone pictures using the package caiman. Includes comments to adjust the specific settings

Data from: Rapid assessment of forest canopy and light regime using smartphone hemispherical photography

Hemispherical photography (HP), implemented with cameras equipped with “fisheye” lenses, is a widely used method for describing forest canopies and light regimes. A promising technological advance is the availability of low-cost fisheye lenses for smartphone cameras. However, smartphone camera sensors cannot record a full hemisphere. We investigate whether smartphone HP is a cheaper and faster but still adequate operational alternative to traditional cameras for describing forest canopies and light regimes. We collected hemispherical pictures with both smartphone and traditional cameras in 223 forest sample points, across different overstory species and canopy densities. The smartphone image acquisition followed a faster and simpler protocol than that for the traditional camera. We automatically thresholded all images. We processed the traditional camera images for Canopy Openness (CO) and Site Factor estimation. For smartphone images, we took two pictures with different orientations per point and used two processing protocols: (i) we estimated and averaged total canopy gap from the two single pictures, and (ii) merging the two pictures together, we formed images closer to full hemispheres and estimated from them CO and Site Factors. We compared the same parameters obtained from different cameras and estimated generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) between them. Total canopy gap estimated from the first processing protocol for smartphone pictures was on average significantly higher than CO estimated from traditional camera images, although with a consistent bias. Canopy Openness and Site Factors estimated from merged smartphone pictures of the second processing protocol were on average significantly higher than those from traditional cameras images, although with relatively little absolute differences and scatter. Smartphone HP is an acceptable alternative to HP using traditional cameras, providing similar results with a faster and cheaper methodology. Smartphone outputs can be directly used as they are for ecological studies, or converted with specific models for a better comparison to traditional cameras

Hugin processing

Scripts for writing and running in a batch mode the Hugin files for all your paired smartphone diagonal pictures and merge them

Smartphone images

Diagonal smartphone images taken with a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime smartphone in the same plot (East-West and North-South orientation), and resulting merged picture from Hugin processing