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Changes of the postcentral cortex in irritable bowel syndrome patients

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Abstract

The postcentral cortex (poCC) is commonly found to respond to visceral stimulation, but researchers usually pay less attention to this role of the poCC in the patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders, because it is a primary receptor for general bodily feeling of touch, such as temperature and pain. The current study focuses on the changes around the poCC in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients based on the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, aiming to investigate whether the poCC-centric brain metrics may be directly related to visceral perception. In the study, we calculated the regional homogeneity, seed-based correlation (SBC) and nodal centralities of the poCC to explore the changes in the regional activity and information flow around the poCC in IBS patients. Moreover, we examined the performance of the poCC-centric features in classifying the IBS group and healthy group in comparison to those features unrelated to the poCC. The results found that central alterations around the poCC in IBS patients were associated with the level of visceral pain, and exhibited a better discriminative power than those around the whole brain and the insula when classifying the IBS group and healthy group. In conclusion, the preliminary investigation provided fundamental advances in understanding the roles of the poCC in the pathphysiology of the IBS.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Project for the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 81501547, 61602423, and 81501548]; and the Science and Technology Planning Program of Henan Province [grant numbers 172106000074, 172102410080, 172102410088 and 172102210063].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer and Communication Engineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, No.136, Science Avenue, Zhengzhou, 450000, Henan-Province, People’s Republic of China

    Jiaofen Nan, Wenya Yang, Panting Meng, Wei Huang, Qian Zheng & Yongquan Xia

  2. School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, QLD, Brisbane, 4072, Australia

    Feng Liu

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  1. Jiaofen Nan
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  2. Wenya Yang
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  3. Panting Meng
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  4. Wei Huang
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  5. Qian Zheng
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  6. Yongquan Xia
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  7. Feng Liu
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Contributions

Jiaofen Nan: processing data, interpreting data and drafting the article; Wenya Yang and Panting Meng: processing data and interpreting data; Wei Huang: analyzing data; Qian Zheng: processing data; Yongquan Xia: designing the study and collecting the data; Feng Liu: providing numerous helpful suggesstions for writing the manuscript and discussing the results.

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Correspondence to Jiaofen Nan or Yongquan Xia.

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Nan, J., Yang, W., Meng, P. et al. Changes of the postcentral cortex in irritable bowel syndrome patients. Brain Imaging and Behavior 14, 1566–1576 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00087-7

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