A systematic review and activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of the central innervation of the lower urinary tract: Pelvic floor motor control and micturition

Purpose Functional neuroimaging is a powerful and versatile tool to investigate central lower urinary tract (LUT) control. Despite the increasing body of literature there lack comprehensive overviews on LUT Thus, we aimed execute coordinate based meta-analysis all PET fMRI evidence descending control, i.e. pelvic floor muscle contraction (PFMC) micturition. Materials methods A systematic search relevant libraries was performed in August 2020. Coordinates activity were extracted from eligible studies perform an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) using threshold uncorrected p <0.001. Results 20 6858 identified studies, published between 1997 2020, included. Twelve investigated PFMC (1xPET, 11xfMRI) eight micturition (3xPET, 5xfMRI). The ALE analysis (n = 181, 133 foci) showed clusters primary motor cortex, supplementary cingulate gyrus, frontal thalamus, supramarginal cerebellum. 107, 98 active dorsal pons, including pontine center, periaqueductal gray, insula ventral pons. Overlap found gyrus thalamus. Conclusions For first time involved core brain areas control determined ALE. Furthermore, for are partially distinct. Further required extend this determine differences healthy dysfunctional LUT. This requires standardization protocols task-execution.