AUTHOR=Smith Jeremy L. , Allen Jason W. , Fleischer Candace C. , Harper Daniel E. TITLE=Topology of pain networks in patients with temporomandibular disorder and pain-free controls with and without concurrent experimental pain: A pilot study JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pain Research VOLUME=3 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pain-research/articles/10.3389/fpain.2022.966398 DOI=10.3389/fpain.2022.966398 ISSN=2673-561X ABSTRACT=
Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) involve chronic pain in the masticatory muscles and jaw joints, but the mechanisms underlying the pain are heterogenous and vary across individuals. In some cases, structural, functional, and metabolic changes in the brain may underlie the condition. In the present study, we evaluated the functional connectivity between 86 regions of interest (ROIs), which were chosen based on previously reported neuroimaging studies of pain and differences in brain morphology identified in an initial surface-based morphometry analysis. Our main objectives were to investigate the topology of the network formed by these ROIs and how it differs between individuals with TMD and chronic pain (