• Lea Tøttrup Jørgensen
  • Aida Hejlskov Poulsen
4. semester , Sundhedsteknologi (cand.polyt.), Kandidat (Kandidatuddannelse)
Long term potentiation (LTP) is a strengthening of plastic synaptic connections. It is considered an underlying mechanisms of chronic pain and results in sensitization. LTP-like pain has previously been induced by conditional electrical stimulation and quantified by psychophysical and EEG data. Recent research in pain processing has been focusing on cortical connectivity, in order to display more complex brain processes. The aim of the present study was to investigate how cortical connectivity is affected by induced LTP-like pain. A 10 Hz increasing form of the exponential current decay pulse was applied for 50 seconds. Psychophysical data to mechanical pinprick stimuli and EEG in a rest recording and a recording during continuous mechanical pinprick stimulation were acquired. Cortical connectivity was assessed by coherence computed subsequent to source reconstruction, using sLORETA. No significant change in pain perception was detected in the psychophysical data or in coherence in the EEG recorded during pinprick stimulation. Significant interaction between time and connections was however observed for the rest recordings in the delta (p=0.019), theta (p=0.0030) and alpha (p=0.0080) bands. The decrease in coherence between the alpha waves in the parietal area and the orbitofrontal cortex was correlated to increase in pain perception. The fact that only EEG rest recordings revealed an effect of CES, may be due to the limited amount of subjects (n=11) and an insufficient standardization of stimuli intensity, as not all subjects perceived the CES as painful.
SprogEngelsk
Udgivelsesdato6 jun. 2017
Antal sider93
ID: 259273430