Pain Syndrome Type I Impacts Brain Structure in Prefrontal & Motor Cortex

Comparing CRPS patients to age and gender matched controls by VBM whole brain analysis identified 

one significant cluster with increased gray matter density in CRPS patients located in the 

DMPFC (peak voxel-level: 1.5, 52.5, 16.5 (x, y, z, mm), T = 4.42, p<0.001 uncorrected, 

cluster-level: 556 voxels, p = 0.03 FWE corrected).

(CRPS) is a rare but debilitating pain disorder that occurs after injuries to the upper limb. 

To identify structural changes in the somatosensory cortex, MRI scans of patients with left-sided CRPS were horizontally flipped before data pre-processing & statistical comparison (i.e., CRPS > controls).

Using small volume correction we found one significant cluster with increased gray matter density, which was located in the primary motor cortex (M1: peak voxel-level: –40.5, –9, 60 (x, y, z, mm), T = 4.31, p<0.001 uncorrected, cluster-level: 89 voxels, p = 0.042 FWE corrected). As for the DMPFC , there is no correlation between altered grey matter density in primary motor cortex and clinical CRPS features.