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Individualised tACS targeting the somatosensory alpha frequency modulates pain perception and offers new avenues for personalised neuromodulation in pain management.
Brain rhythms, or neural oscillations, help process the sensory, emotional, and cognitive aspects of pain, but their exact role remains unclear. Scientists are investigating transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to safely tweak these rhythms and better understand how the brain controls pain, with personalised approaches showing the most promise. The group of investigators examined the effects of tACS delivered at each participant’s individual peak alpha frequency (IAF) on pain perception and brain activity.
Utilizing a within-subject, sham-controlled design, tACS was applied over the primary motor cortex (M1). The stimulation targeted the hemisphere opposite the dominant arm in 38 healthy volunteers. Participants received sustained 0.2 Hz heat pain stimuli to the forearm before and after stimulation, while pain perception and heat pain thresholds (HPT) were measured. Individual IAF was calculated from scalp electroencephalography using an independent component analysis approach, allowing researchers to isolate the somatosensory alpha frequency (SS-IAF) for targeted stimulation.
The study found that pain perception generally rose and HPT declined in both sham and active conditions, with no prominent differences between them. However, a trend suggested that tACS reduced sensitisation to heat pain stimuli. Exploratory analyses indicated a possible sex-specific effect, with HPT modulation observed in women but not in men. Additionally, a significant correlation emerged between the SS-IAF and HPT, linking brain rhythms to pain sensitivity.
Researchers concluded that targeting brain rhythms at the individual level offers a promising path for personalised pain relief. By applying tACS to the sensorimotor area at each person’s SS-IAF, the study demonstrated potential to modulate pain perception, providing new insights for customised neuromodulation therapies.
European Journal of Pain
Individualised Alpha-tACS for Modulating Pain Perception and Neural Oscillations: A Sham-Controlled Study in Healthy Participants
Yaser Fathi et al.
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