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Neural correlates of somatoform disorders from a meta-analytic perspective on neuroimaging studies.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Schrimpf, Marlene 
Liegl, Gregor 
Pieh, Christoph 

Abstract

Somatoform disorders (SD) are common medical disorders with prevalence rates between 3.5% and 18.4%, depending on country and medical setting. SD as outlined in the ICD-10 exhibits various biological, social, and psychological pathogenic factors. Little is known about the neural correlates of SD. The aims of this meta-analysis are to identify neuronal areas that are involved in SD and consistently differ between patients and healthy controls. We conducted a systematic literature research on neuroimaging studies of SD. Ten out of 686 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were analyzed using activation likelihood estimation. Five neuronal areas differ between patients with SD and healthy controls namely the premotor and supplementary motor cortexes, the middle frontal gyrus, the anterior cingulate cortex, the insula, and the posterior cingulate cortex. These areas seem to have a particular importance for the occurrence of SD. Out of the ten studies two did not contribute to any of the clusters. Our results seem to largely overlap with the circuit network model of somatosensory amplification for SD. It is conceivable that functional disorders, independent of the clinical impression, show similar neurobiological processes. While overlaps do occur it is necessary to understand single functional somatic syndromes and their aetiology for future research, terminology, and treatment guidelines.

Description

Keywords

ALE, Activation likelihood estimation, Anterior cingulate cortex, Insula, MRI, Meta-analysis, Middle frontal gyrus, Neuroimaging, Posterior cingulate cortex, Premotor area, Somatoform disorders, Somatoform pain disorders, Supplementary motor cortex, Brain, Brain Mapping, Databases, Bibliographic, Female, Humans, Likelihood Functions, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neuroimaging, Somatoform Disorders

Journal Title

Neuroimage Clin

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2213-1582
2213-1582

Volume Title

11

Publisher

Elsevier BV