Brain Structural and Functional Alterations in Chronic Multisite Pain: A UK Biobank Study with a Focus on Sex Differences

Motivation: The UK Biobank provides a large brain imaging dataset useful to study how chronic pain affects the brain. Goal(s): Investigate brain structural and functional alterations in chronic multisite pain, and explore the brain correlates of the sex X pain interaction. Approach: Cortical thickness and functional connectivity differences between chronic multisite pain patients and pain-free controls were studied. Sex differences in chronic pain were explored on the same measures. Results: Decreased cortical thickness in patients was associated with impaired functional connectivity in cortical areas and the thalamus. Sex differences were identified in the connection between the middle temporal gyrus and pain-related regions. Impact: The reproducibility crisis in neuroscience impacts brain imaging studies with low sample sizes especially. Results from large brain imaging datasets obtained from the UK Biobank provide more generalizable findings on the structural and functional changes in chronic multisite pain patients.