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Cortical activity evoked by an acute painful tissue-damaging stimulus in healthy adult volunteers.

Fabrizi, L; Williams, G; Lee, A; Meek, J; Slater, R; Olhede, S; Fitzgerald, M; (2013) Cortical activity evoked by an acute painful tissue-damaging stimulus in healthy adult volunteers. J Neurophysiol , 109 (9) 2393 - 2403. 10.1152/jn.00990.2012. Green open access

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Abstract

Everyday painful experiences are usually single events accompanied by tissue damage, and yet most experimental studies of cutaneous nociceptive processing in the brain use repeated laser, thermal, or electrical stimulations that do not damage the skin. In this study the nociceptive activity in the brain evoked by tissue-damaging skin lance was analyzed with electroencephalography (EEG) in 20 healthy adult volunteers (13 men and 7 women) aged 21-40 yr. Time-frequency analysis of the evoked activity revealed a distinct late event-related vertex potential (lance event-related potential, LERP) at 100-300 ms consisting of a phase-locked energy increase between 1 and 20 Hz (delta-beta bands). A pairwise comparison between lance and sham control stimulation also revealed a period of ultralate stronger desynchronization after lance in the delta band (1-5 Hz). Skin application of mustard oil before lancing, which sensitizes a subpopulation of nociceptors expressing the cation channel TRPA1, did not affect the ultralate desynchronization but reduced the phase-locked energy increase in delta and beta bands, suggesting a central interaction between different modalities of nociceptive inputs. Verbal descriptor screening of individual pain experience revealed that lance pain is predominantly due to Aδ fiber activation, but when individuals describe lances as C fiber mediated, an ultralate delta band event-related desynchronization occurs in the brain-evoked activity. We conclude that pain evoked by acute tissue damage is associated with distinct Aδ and C fiber-mediated patterns of synchronization and desynchronization of EEG oscillations in the brain.

Type: Article
Title: Cortical activity evoked by an acute painful tissue-damaging stimulus in healthy adult volunteers.
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1152/jn.00990.2012
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/jn.00990.2012
Language: English
Additional information: © 2013 the American Physiological Society. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY 3.0: the American Physiological Society. PMCID: PMC3652217
Keywords: brain, cortex, event-related potential, nociception, pain, Adult, Beta Rhythm, Calcium Channels, Cerebral Cortex, Delta Rhythm, Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory, Female, Humans, Male, Nerve Fibers, Myelinated, Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Nociception, Nociceptors, Skin, Transient Receptor Potential Channels
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 Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Neuro, Physiology and Pharmacology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health > Neonatology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Statistical Science
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1388322
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