查看文章

Sex differences in pain prevalence are well-established, but underlying contributors are not understood. Given the brain's role in pain perception and modulation, it is plausible that sex differences in brain structure contribute to sex differences in pain processing. Although research suggests aberrant white matter microstructure in patients with chronic pain, most studies to date fail to consider sex specifically. Using diffusion tensor imaging, we examined the associations of pain impact (no pain, low impact, and high impact) on whole brain white matter microstructure (Fractional Anisotropy (FA), Medial Diffusivity (MD) and Radial Diffusivity (RD) in males (n=22) and females (n=40). Both high and low impact pain groups had a greater proportion of females compared to males (61.7% and 66.7%, respectively). Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVA) demonstrated that there was a significant main effect of pain impact (p<0.05 …