Multi-modality functional imaging of opioid intervention in nociception
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Chiang, Yun-Chen
Abstract
Due to the complexity of the pain processing in brain, understanding the antinociceptive modulation within brain areas raises a need for simultaneously detecting the spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal activities. In the last decades, arising consciousness of pain using in vivo imaging techniques have dramatically increased. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) are the most commonly used techniques providing non-invasive, in vivo measurement of the cerebral hemodynamics as well as molecular processes. However, the antinociceptive effect of the autoregulation may shadow the functional signal under nociception. Among all, dopamine and opioid system are considered to play significant roles in pain modulation, in which endogenous opioid peptides potentially act as a positive regulator. This thesis utilizes cerebral blood volume weighted fMRI and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose microPET to capture nociception induced hemodynamic responses and metabolic features in the rodent brain. Stating from the investigation of the whole brain neuronal activation to the specific cerebral region with neuronal vascular coupling due to endogenous neurotransmitters, the intervention of opioids in the signal of functional imaging was interpreted. The study highlights the awareness of the endogenous neurotransmission and self-regulation interference in in vivo functional studies of pain.
Subjects
fMRI
microPET
opioids
pain
Type
thesis
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