Clinical trial NCT02212691: Functional Neuroimaging of Pain Using EEG and fMRI
Official title: Functional Neuroimaging of Pain in Sickle Cell Disease Patients
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Sickle Cell Disease
Keywords: Sickle Cell
Lead sponsor: University of Minnesota
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
First posted: 2014-08-08
Enrollment: 57
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 16
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: OTHER
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Healthy subjects Sickle cell patients

Brief summary: The purpose of this research is to use non-invasive imaging technologies to study how the human brain processes pain. The investigators will use contact heat to induce pain and record data scalp EEG and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). What the investigators learn from this study will help us gain insights in pain management with broad socioeconomic impacts

Detailed description: Functional imaging of brain networks associated with pain processing is of vital importance to aid developing new pain-relief therapy and to better understand the mechanisms of brain function. The pain response in the brain is a complex process, which involves multiple cortical brain regions, such as primary and secondary somatosensory cortices, anterior cingulate cortex, and insular cortex . Recent advancement in neuroimaging techniques suggests the possibility to map the brain structure and networks that involve pain processing. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a noninvasive monitoring technique, which is widely used to probe neurological disorders with high temporal resolution. Few attempts have been made to use EEG to map the active brain regions in pain patients. Functional MRI (fMRI) measures the hemodynamic brain response and could image the active brain regions with high spatial resolution. Studies have shown that fMRI is a useful tool to delineate the brain regions associated with pain processing. Recent studies from simultaneous EEG and fMRI recording have suggested that the EEG response to the pain may be correlated with the fMRI response, and both EEG and fMRI could be used to image the brain pain processing regions, such as the primary somatosensory cortex and anterior cingulate cortex.

The aim of this research is to develop and evaluate a functional neuroimaging approach using EEG, fMRI and EEG-fMRI, in pain study. EEG, fMRI, or simultaneous EEG-fMRI will be collected in healthy subjects who receive external thermal stimulation inducing pain. The painful stimuli will be delivered at different intensity levels and the subject pain rating will be collected. The imaging technique combines the EEG signal with high temporal resolution and the fMRI signal with high spatial resolution to obtain a spatiotemporal imaging of the brain electrophysiological and hemodynamic activity in response to different levels of pain. Cross validation between this method and subject pain score will be used to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the technique. The successful completion of the current protocol will help establish an important imaging technology accessing pain level in an objective way.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Healthy subjects with no known neurological disorders
* Sickle cell patients with no metal implants

Exclusion Criteria:

* Age over 65 in either group

Primary outcomes:
measure: Changes in EEG power
timeFrame: up to four years
measure: Changes in fMRI activity level
timeFrame: up to four years
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Minneapolis
country: United States
facility: Biomedical Engineering Department
state: Minnesota
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Minnesota
name: Bin He, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Case M, Shirinpour S, Zhang H, Datta YH, Nelson SC, Sadak KT, Gupta K, He B. Increased theta band EEG power in sickle cell disease patients. J Pain Res. 2017 Dec 27;11:67-76. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S145581. eCollection 2018.
citation: Case M, Shirinpour S, Vijayakumar V, Zhang H, Datta Y, Nelson S, Pergami P, Darbari DS, Gupta K, He B. Graph theory analysis reveals how sickle cell disease impacts neural networks of patients with more severe disease. Neuroimage Clin. 2019;21:101599. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2018.11.009. Epub 2018 Nov 14.