Prefrontal Gamma Oscillations Encode Tonic Pain in Humans.

ABSTRACT: Under physiological conditions, momentary pain serves vital protective functions. Ongoing pain in chronic pain states, on the other hand, is a pathological condition that causes widespread suffering and whose treatment remains unsatisfactory. The brain mechanisms of ongoing pain are largely unknown. In this study, we applied tonic painful heat stimuli of varying degree to healthy human subjects, obtained continuous pain ratings, and recorded electroencephalograms to relate ongoing pain to brain activity. Our results reveal that the subjective perception of tonic pain is selectively encoded by gamma oscillations in the medial prefrontal cortex. We further observed that the encoding of subjective pain intensity experienced by the participants differs fundamentally from that of objective stim

SUBMITTER: Schulz E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4816790 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature