Key result
Chronic non-specific back pain was associated with significantly diminished striatal BOLD responses during reward anticipation in males relative to healthy control males.
Why the study?
Previous studies of reward processing in chronic pain reported incongruent findings and did not stratify analyses by sex, a factor shown to robustly impact reward-related responses.
Does chronic pain alter striatal reward responsivity differently in males compared to females?
Cross-Sectional (n=90)
Does chronic pain alter striatal reward responsivity differently in males compared to females?
Chronic pain is associated with sex-specific reductions in anticipatory responses to reward in the striatum among males, highlighting the need to consider sex differences in pain and reward processing.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May indicate sex-specific reward deficits in male chronic pain; hypothesis-generating for sex-stratified trials.
Chronic pain and reward processing are understood to be reciprocally related to one another. Previous studies of reward processing in chronic pain patients have reported incongruent findings. While several factors likely contribute to these disparate findings, these previous studies did not stratify their analyses by sex—a factor previously shown to robustly impact reward-related responses. Thus, we examined sex as a factor of interest in level of striatal activation during anticipation of monetary incentives among patients with chronic non-specific back pain and healthy controls (HC). This study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging during a monetary incentive delay task to evaluate reward and loss responsivity in the striatum among males and females with and without chronic pain (N = 90). Group, sex, and group-by-sex interactions were analyzed via repeated measures analysis of variance. Among HC, males exhibited significantly greater blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal in the striatum during reward anticipation, particularly during large reward trials. By contrast, no significant sex differences were observed among patients. A significant group-by-sex interaction was also observed, revealing diminished BOLD responses among males with chronic pain relative to control males. These results provide novel evidence of sex-specific reductions in anticipatory responses to reward in patients with chronic pain. Altered striatal reward responsivity among males, but not females, suggests that the reward systems of males and females are uniquely disrupted by chronic pain, and highlights the value of including sex as a factor of interest in future studies of reward responsivity in the context of persistent pain.
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Baker et al. (2022) conducted a cross-sectional in Chronic non-specific back pain (n=90). Chronic non-specific back pain vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on Level of striatal activation (BOLD signal) during anticipation of monetary incentives. Chronic non-specific back pain was associated with significantly diminished striatal BOLD responses during reward anticipation in males relative to healthy control males.
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