Wang Hailu, Guo Yifei, Tu Yiheng, Peng Weiwei, Lu Xuejing, Bi Yanzhi, Iannetti Gian Domenico, Hu Li
CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Cereb Cortex. 2023 Jan 5;33(3):634-650. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhac090.
Tracking and predicting the temporal structure of nociceptive inputs is crucial to promote survival, as proper and immediate reactions are necessary to avoid actual or potential bodily injury. Neural activities elicited by nociceptive stimuli with different temporal structures have been described, but the neural processes responsible for translating nociception into pain perception are not fully elucidated. To tap into this issue, we recorded electroencephalographic signals from 48 healthy participants receiving thermo-nociceptive stimuli with 3 different durations and 2 different intensities. We observed that pain perception and several brain responses are modulated by stimulus duration and intensity. Crucially, we identified 2 sustained brain responses that were related to the emergence of painful percepts: a low-frequency component (LFC, < 1 Hz) originated from the insula and anterior cingulate cortex, and an alpha-band event-related desynchronization (α-ERD, 8-13 Hz) generated from the sensorimotor cortex. These 2 sustained brain responses were highly coupled, with the α-oscillation amplitude that fluctuated with the LFC phase. Furthermore, the translation of stimulus duration into pain perception was serially mediated by α-ERD and LFC. The present study reveals how brain responses elicited by nociceptive stimulation reflect the complex processes occurring during the translation of nociceptive information into pain perception.
追踪和预测伤害性输入的时间结构对于促进生存至关重要，因为适当且即时的反应对于避免实际或潜在的身体伤害是必要的。不同时间结构的伤害性刺激所引发的神经活动已被描述，但将伤害感受转化为疼痛感知的神经过程尚未完全阐明。为了深入探讨这个问题，我们记录了48名健康参与者在接受具有3种不同持续时间和2种不同强度的热伤害性刺激时的脑电图信号。我们观察到疼痛感知和几种大脑反应受刺激持续时间和强度的调节。至关重要的是，我们识别出了2种与疼痛感觉出现相关的持续大脑反应：一种低频成分（LFC，<1Hz）起源于脑岛和前扣带回皮层，另一种α波段事件相关去同步化（α-ERD，8 - 13Hz）产生于感觉运动皮层。这2种持续大脑反应高度耦合，α振荡幅度随LFC相位波动。此外，刺激持续时间到疼痛感知的转化由α-ERD和LFC依次介导。本研究揭示了伤害性刺激引发的大脑反应如何反映在将伤害性信息转化为疼痛感知过程中发生的复杂过程。
