title: Electroencephalographic frontal synchrony and caudal asynchrony during painful hand immersion in cold water.
abstract: Recent studies in our laboratory showed that cortical theta oscillations correlate with pain in rodent models. In this study, we sought to validate our pre-clinical data using EEG recordings in humans during immersion of the hand in ice cold water, a moderately noxious stimulus. Power spectral analysis shows that an increase in pain score is associated with an increase in power amplitude within a frequency range of 6-7Hz at the frontal (Fz) electrode. These results are consistent with our previous pre-clinical animal studies and the clinical literature. We also report a novel reduction in power at the caudal (O1) electrode within a broader 3-30Hz rand and decreased coherence between Fz and C3, C4 electrodes within the theta (4-8Hz) and low beta (13-21Hz) bands, while coherence (an indirect measure of functional connectivity) between Fz and O1 increased within the theta and alpha (8-12Hz) bands. We argue that pain is associated with EEG frontal synchrony and caudal asynchrony, leading to the disruption of cortico-cortical connectivity.
authors.affiliation: Center for Biomedical Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Levitt
authors.affiliation: Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
authors.forename: Hyunwoo J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Choo
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
authors.forename: Kelsey A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Rhode Island Hospital, and Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
authors.forename: Brian W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: LeBlanc
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Rhode Island Hospital, and Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA. Electronic address: Carl_Saab@Brown.edu.
authors.forename: Carl Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Saab
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D058256:Brain Waves; D003080:Cold Temperature; D003344:Cortical Synchronization; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D058748:Pain Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cold pressor; Connectivity; Electroencephalography; Power; Synchrony