Modulations of ongoing oscillations exerted by sustained painful heat and non-painful cold stimuli recorded from the human insula using intracerebral EEG

The human insula is a target for spinothalamic input, but there is still no consensus on its role in pain perception. Using intracerebral electroencephalography (iEEG), we recently observed that sustained periodic warm nociceptive stimuli selectively modulated theta- and alpha-band ongoing oscillations recorded from the insula. These modulations, however, are not necessarily pain-specific, as they could be simply related to the activation of the spinothalamic system, and/or to the conveyance of thermal information. The aim of the present study was to disentangle these aspects by comparing the effects of sustained periodic painful heat stimulation and sustained periodic non-painful cold stimulation on insular ongoing oscillatory activity. 6 patients undergoing iEEG (34 insular contacts) participated in the experiment (Fig. 1). Each patient received 2 blocks of sustained periodic stimuli (painful heat and non-painful cold stimuli; frequency: 0.2 Hz). The order of the blocks was randomized across participants. Whereas both heat and cold stimuli elicited an increase of EEG power at the frequency of stimulation (0.2 Hz), only heat stimuli exerted a 0.2 Hz modulation of ongoing oscillations in the theta frequency band (Fig. 2). These findings suggest that the modulation of theta oscillations exerted by painful heat stimuli is not merely related to the activation of the spinothalamic system and/or to the conveyance of thermal information, but could be more strongly related to pain perception.

Affiliations

UCLouvainSSS/IONS/COSY - Systems & cognitive Neuroscience

Citations

APA
Chicago
FWB

Liberati, G., Mulders, D., Lebrun, L., Courtin, A., Ferrao Santos, S., Ribeiro Vaz, J. G., Raftopoulos, C., & Mouraux, A. (2021). Modulations of ongoing oscillations exerted by sustained painful heat and non-painful cold stimuli recorded from the human insula using intracerebral EEG. Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Global Connectome, Online conference. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/25341