AUTHOR=Alves Rael Lopes , Zortea Maxciel , Serrano Paul Vicuña , Brugnera Tomedi Rafaela , Pereira de Almeida Rodrigo , Torres Iraci L. S. , Fregni Felipe , Caumo Wolnei 

TITLE=High-beta oscillations at EEG resting state and hyperconnectivity of pain circuitry in fibromyalgia: an exploratory cross-sectional study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience

VOLUME=17

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2023.1233979

DOI=10.3389/fnins.2023.1233979

ISSN=1662-453X

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Background</title><p>Electroencephalography (EEG) has identified neural activity in specific brain regions as a potential indicator of the neural signature of chronic pain. This study compared the lagged coherence connectivity between regions of interest (ROIs) associated with the pain connectome in women with fibromyalgia (FM) and healthy women (HC).</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>We evaluated 64 participants (49 FM and 15 HC) during resting-state EEG sessions under both eyes open (EO) and eyes closed (EC) conditions. In addition to EEG measurements, we assessed clinical and psychological symptoms and serum levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). The connectivity between eight ROIs was computed across eight different EEG frequencies.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>The FM group demonstrated increased connectivity between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), specifically in the beta-3 frequency band (<italic>t</italic> = 3.441, <italic>p</italic> = 0.044). When comparing the EO and EC conditions, FM patients exhibited heightened interhemispheric connectivity between insular areas (<italic>t</italic>  = 3.372, <italic>p</italic> = 0.024) and between the left insula (INS) and right DLPFC (<italic>t</italic> = 3.695, <italic>p</italic> = 0.024) within the beta-3 frequency band. In the EC condition, there was a negative correlation between pain disability and connectivity in the beta-3 frequency band between the left ACC and the left primary somatosensory cortex (SI; <italic>r</italic> = −0.442, <italic>p</italic> = 0.043). In the EO condition, there was a negative correlation between central sensitization severity and lagged coherence connectivity in the alpha-2 frequency band between the right ACC and left SI (<italic>r</italic> = 0.428, <italic>p</italic> = 0.014). Moreover, in the EO–EC comparison, the lagged coherence connection between the left DLPFC and right INS, indexed by the gamma frequency band, showed a negative correlation with serum BDNF levels (<italic>r</italic> = −0.506, <italic>p</italic> = 0.012).</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>These findings indicate that increased connectivity between different pain processing circuits, particularly in the beta-3 frequency band during rest, may serve as neural biomarkers for the chronic pain brain signature associated with neuroplasticity and the severity of FM symptoms.</p></sec>