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Cerebral peak alpha frequency reflects average pain severity in a human model of sustained, musculoskeletal pain
Furman, Andrew J. Thapa Rana, Tribikram Summers, Simon J. Cavaleri, Rocco Fogarty, Jack S. Steiner, Genevieve Z. Schabrun, Siobhan M. Seminowicz, David A.
Furman, Andrew J.
Thapa Rana, Tribikram
Summers, Simon J.
Cavaleri, Rocco
Fogarty, Jack S.
Steiner, Genevieve Z.
Schabrun, Siobhan M.
Seminowicz, David A.
Abstract
Heightened pain sensitivity, the amount of pain experienced in response to a noxious event, is a known risk factor for development of chronic pain. We have previously reported that pain-free, sensorimotor peak alpha frequency (PAF) is a reliable biomarker of pain sensitivity for thermal, prolonged pains lasting tens of minutes. To test whether PAF can provide information about pain sensitivity occurring over clinically relevant timescales (i.e., weeks), EEG was recorded before and while participants experienced a long-lasting pain model, repeated intramuscular injection of nerve growth factor (NGF), that produces progressively developing muscle pain for up to 21 days. We demonstrate that pain-free, sensorimotor PAF is negatively correlated with NGF pain sensitivity; increasingly slower PAF is associated with increasingly greater pain sensitivity. Furthermore, PAF remained stable following NGF injection, indicating that the presence of NGF pain for multiple weeks is not sufficient to induce the PAF slowing reported in chronic pain. In total, our results demonstrate that slower pain-free, sensorimotor PAF is associated with heightened sensitivity to a long-lasting musculoskeletal pain and also suggest that the apparent slowing of PAF in chronic pain may reflect predisease pain sensitivity.
Keywords
biomarker, EEG, nerve growth factor, pain sensitivity
Date
2019
Type
Journal article
Journal
Journal of Neurophysiology
Book
Volume
122
Issue
4
Page Range
1784-1793
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Allied Health
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled