Brain alterations in sensorimotor and emotional regions associated with temporomandibular disorders

Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are characterized by sensorimotor and psychological dysfunction, with evidence revealing the implication of a dysfunctional central nervous system. Previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have reported brain alterations in TMD, but most studies focused on either structure or function by a single modality of MRI and investigated static functional connectivity (FC) in TMD. By combining structural and functional MRI data, the present study aimed to identify brain regions with structural abnormalities in TMD patients and examine static and dynamic FC seeded by these regions to investigate structural brain alterations and related disrupted FC underlying the pathophysiology of TMD.