Resilience, a personality construct that reflects capacities to persevere, maintain a positive outlook and/or thrive despite ongoing stressors, has emerged as an important focus of research on chronic pain (CP). Although behavior studies have found more resilient persons with CP experience less pain-related dysfunction than less resilient cohorts do, the presence and nature of associated brain structure differences has received scant attention. To address this gap, we examined gray matter volume (GMV) differences between more versus less resilient adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Participants (75 women, 43 men) were community-dwellers who reported ongoing musculoskeletal pain for at least three months. More (n = 57) and less (n = 61) resilient subgroups, respectively, were identified on the basis of scoring above and below median scores on two validated resilience questionnaires. Voxel-based morphology (VBM) undertaken to examine resilience subgroup differences in GMV indicated more resilient participants displayed significantly larger GMV in the (1) bilateral precuneus, (2) left superior and inferior parietal lobules, (3) orbital right middle frontal gyrus and medial right superior frontal gyrus, and (4) bilateral median cingulate and paracingulate gyri, even after controlling for subgroup differences on demographics and measures of pain-related distress. Together, results underscored the presence and nature of specific GMV differences underlying subjective reports of more versus less resilient responses to ongoing musculoskeletal pain.

抵御力，一种反映持续能力，保持积极乐观和/或蓬勃发展的人格特质，尽管压力持续存在，但已成为研究慢性疼痛（CP）的重要重点。尽管行为研究发现，与具有较弱适应能力的人群相比，具有更多适应能力的CP患者较少遭受与疼痛相关的功能障碍，但相关的大脑结构差异的存在和性质却很少受到关注。为了解决这一差距，我们研究了在弹性肌肉骨骼疼痛较弱的成年人中灰质体积（GMV）的差异。参与者（75名女性，43名男性）是社区居民，他们报告持续进行了至少三个月的肌肉骨骼疼痛。更多（n  = 57）和更少（n = 61）在两个经过验证的复原力问卷上，根据中位数得分之上和之下的得分分别确定了复原力亚组。基于体素的形态学（VBM）用于检查GMV的弹性亚组差异，表明更具弹性的参与者在（1）双侧前突神经节，（2）左上顶壁和下顶叶，（3）眼眶右中额回和内侧右上额额回和（4）双侧正中扣带回和扣带回回，即使在控制了人口统计学上的亚组差异和疼痛相关困扰的措施后也是如此。总之，结果强调了特定GMV差异的存在和性质，这些差异是主观报道对持续进行的骨骼肌肉疼痛的适应性较弱的主观报道。