Altered brain connectivity in sensory and motor cortices underlying atopic dermatitis.

IF 6.7 2区医学 Q1 ALLERGY

Allergology International Pub Date : 2026-04-07 DOI:10.1016/j.alit.2026.03.004

Da-Eun Yoon, Seoyoung Lee, Jundong Kim, Kyuseok Kim, Junsuk Kim, Younbyoung Chae, Hi-Joon Park, In-Seon Lee

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder characterized by persistent itching. Growing neuroimaging evidence suggests that chronic itching involves altered brain connectivity within sensorimotor networks. This study aimed to investigate alterations in intrinsic brain connectivity in patients with AD compared to healthy controls, and to assess their association with symptom severity using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Methods: We defined several regions in sensorimotor and other relevant networks as seeds and compared seed-to-whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (FC) between 41 patients and 40 healthy controls. Correlations between symptom severity and patients' FC were examined.

Results: Patients with AD exhibited decreased FC between the right primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and regions within the default mode network (DMN), and increased FC between the right primary motor cortex (M1) and regions associated with motor execution, reward processing, and emotional regulation. Significant correlations with symptom severity were observed in the FC of the right S1 and supplementary motor areas. Furthermore, differential association patterns were observed in the right S1 and right M1 regarding FC with regions in the DMN.

Conclusions: Our findings revealed altered connectivity in sensory and motor-related regions in patients with AD, reflecting disrupted neural integration of persistent chronic itch. These findings highlight the central neural mechanisms contributing to the chronic itch-scratch cycle and suggest potential clinical applications of neural markers for evaluating disease severity.

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特应性皮炎中感觉和运动皮层的脑连接改变。

背景：特应性皮炎（AD）是一种以持续瘙痒为特征的慢性炎症性皮肤病。越来越多的神经影像学证据表明，慢性瘙痒与感觉运动网络内的大脑连接改变有关。本研究旨在研究AD患者与健康对照相比内在脑连通性的改变，并使用静息状态功能磁共振成像（fMRI）评估其与症状严重程度的关联。方法：我们定义了感觉运动和其他相关网络的几个区域作为种子，并比较了41名患者和40名健康对照者的种子-全脑静息状态功能连接（FC）。检查症状严重程度与患者FC的相关性。结果：AD患者表现出右侧初级躯体感觉皮层（S1）与默认模式网络（DMN）区域之间的FC减少，右侧初级运动皮层（M1）与运动执行、奖励处理和情绪调节相关区域之间的FC增加。右S1和辅助运动区的FC与症状严重程度显著相关。此外，在右S1和右M1中观察到FC与DMN区域的不同关联模式。结论：我们的研究结果揭示了AD患者感觉和运动相关区域的连通性改变，反映了持续慢性瘙痒的神经整合被破坏。这些发现强调了中枢神经机制对慢性瘙痒-抓伤循环的影响，并提示了神经标记物在评估疾病严重程度方面的潜在临床应用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Allergology International ALLERGY-IMMUNOLOGY

CiteScore

12.60

自引率

5.90%

发文量

审稿时长

29 weeks

期刊介绍： Allergology International is the official journal of the Japanese Society of Allergology and publishes original papers dealing with the etiology, diagnosis and treatment of allergic and related diseases. Papers may include the study of methods of controlling allergic reactions, human and animal models of hypersensitivity and other aspects of basic and applied clinical allergy in its broadest sense. The Journal aims to encourage the international exchange of results and encourages authors from all countries to submit papers in the following three categories: Original Articles, Review Articles, and Letters to the Editor.