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tDCS modulation of visually induced analgesia.

Mancini, F; Bolognini, N; Haggard, P; Vallar, G; (2012) tDCS modulation of visually induced analgesia. J Cogn Neurosci , 24 (12) 2419 - 2427. 10.1162/jocn_a_00293. Green open access

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Abstract

Multisensory interactions can produce analgesic effects. In particular, viewing one's own body reduces pain levels, perhaps because of changes in connectivity between visual areas specialized for body representation, and sensory areas underlying pain perception. We tested the causal role of the extrastriate visual cortex in triggering visually induced analgesia by modulating the excitability of this region with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Anodal, cathodal, or sham tDCS (2 mA, 10 min) was administered to 24 healthy participants over the right occipital or over the centro-parietal areas thought to be involved in the sensory processing of pain. Participants were required to rate the intensity of painful electrical stimuli while viewing either their left hand or an object occluding the left hand, both before and immediately after tDCS. We found that the analgesic effect of viewing the body was enhanced selectively by anodal stimulation of the occipital cortex. The effect was specific for the polarity and the site of stimulation. The present results indicate that visually induced analgesia may depend on neural signals from the extrastriate visual cortex.

Type: Article
Title: tDCS modulation of visually induced analgesia.
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00293
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00293
Language: English
Additional information: © 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license
Keywords: Analgesia, Brain, Electric Stimulation, Electrodes, Electroshock, Female, Hand, Humans, Male, Motor Cortex, Nociception, Pain, Pain Measurement, Parietal Lobe, Photic Stimulation, Visual Cortex, Young Adult
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1355741
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