# PubMed- Visceral sensitivity correlates with decreased regional grey matter volume in healthy volunteers: A voxel-based morphometry study.



## VSsupport (Feb 12, 2008)

[TD]
*Visceral sensitivity correlates with decreased regional grey matter volume in healthy volunteers: A voxel-based morphometry study.*

Pain. 2013 Oct 4;

Authors: Elsenbruch S, Schmid J, Kullmann JS, Kattoor J, Theysohn N, Forsting M, Kotsis V

Abstract
Regional changes in brain structure have been reported in patients with altered visceral sensitivity and chronic abdominal pain, such as in irritable bowel syndrome. It remains unknown if structural brain changes are associated with visceral sensitivity. Therefore, we present the first study in healthy individuals to address whether inter-individual variations in grey matter volume (GMV) in pain-relevant regions correlate with visceral sensitivity. In 92 healthy young adults (52 females), we assessed rectal sensory and pain thresholds and performed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to compute linear regression models with visceral sensory and pain thresholds, respectively, as independent variable and GMV in a priori-defined regions of interest (ROIs) as dependent variable. All results were familywise error (FWE) corrected at a level of pFWE<0.05 and covaried for age. The mean (± SEM) rectal thresholds were 14.78 ± 0.46 mmHg for first sensation and 33.97 ± 1.13 mmHg for pain, without evidence of sex differences. Lower rectal sensory threshold (i.e., increased sensitivity) correlated significantly with reduced GMV in the thalamus, insula, posterior cingulate cortex, ventrolateral and orbitofrontal prefrontal cortices, amygdala and basal ganglia (all pFWE<0.05). Lower rectal pain threshold was associated with reduced GMV in the right thalamus (pFWE=0.051). These are the first data supporting that increased visceral sensitivity correlates with decreased grey matter volume in pain-relevant brain regions. These findings support that alterations in brain morphology do not only occur in clinical pain conditions but also according to normal inter-individual variations in visceral sensitivity.

PMID: 24099953 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

View the full article


----------

