A study on small-world brain functional networks altered by postherpetic neuralgia

Understanding the effect of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) pain on brain activity is important for clinical strategies. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to relate PHN pain to small-world properties of brain functional networks. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to construct functional brain networks of the subjects during the resting state. Sixteen patients with PHN pain and 16 (8 males, 8 females for both groups) age-matched controls were studied. The PHN patients exhibited decreased local efficiency along with non-significant changes of global efficiency in comparison with the healthy controls. Moreover, regional nodal efficiency was found to be significantly affected by PHN pain in the areas related to sense (postcentral gyrus, inferior parietal gyrus and thalamus), memory/affective processes (parahippocampal gyrus) and emotional activities (putamen). Significant correlation (p < 0.05) was also found between the nodal efficiency of putamen and pain intensity in PHN patients. Our results suggest that PHN modulates the local efficiency, and the small-world properties of brain networks may have potentials to objectively evaluate pain information in clinic.