Gil Avila Cristina, May Elisabeth S, Bott Felix S, Tiemann Laura, Hohn Vanessa, Heitmann Henrik, Zebhauser Paul Theo, Gross Joachim, Ploner Markus
Department of Neurology, TUM School of Medicine and Health, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany.
TUM-Neuroimaging Center, TUM School of Medicine and Health, TUM, Munich, Germany.
Elife. 2025 Jan 13;13:RP101727. doi: 10.7554/eLife.101727.
Chronic pain is a prevalent and debilitating condition whose neural mechanisms are incompletely understood. An imbalance of cerebral excitation and inhibition (E/I), particularly in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), is believed to represent a crucial mechanism in the development and maintenance of chronic pain. Thus, identifying a non-invasive, scalable marker of E/I could provide valuable insights into the neural mechanisms of chronic pain and aid in developing clinically useful biomarkers. Recently, the aperiodic component of the electroencephalography (EEG) power spectrum has been proposed to represent a non-invasive proxy for E/I. We, therefore, assessed the aperiodic component in the mPFC of resting-state EEG recordings in 149 people with chronic pain and 115 healthy participants. We found robust evidence against differences in the aperiodic component in the mPFC between people with chronic pain and healthy participants, and no correlation between the aperiodic component and pain intensity. These findings were consistent across different subtypes of chronic pain and were similarly found in a whole-brain analysis. Their robustness was supported by preregistration and multiverse analyses across many different methodological choices. Together, our results suggest that the EEG aperiodic component does not differentiate between people with chronic pain and healthy individuals. These findings and the rigorous methodological approach can guide future studies investigating non-invasive, scalable markers of cerebral dysfunction in people with chronic pain and beyond.
慢性疼痛是一种普遍且使人衰弱的病症，其神经机制尚未完全明确。大脑兴奋与抑制（E/I）失衡，尤其是在内侧前额叶皮质（mPFC），被认为是慢性疼痛发生和维持的关键机制。因此，确定一种非侵入性、可扩展的E/I标志物，可为慢性疼痛的神经机制提供有价值的见解，并有助于开发临床有用的生物标志物。最近，有人提出脑电图（EEG）功率谱的非周期性成分可作为E/I的非侵入性替代指标。因此，我们评估了149名慢性疼痛患者和115名健康参与者静息态EEG记录中mPFC的非周期性成分。我们发现有力证据表明，慢性疼痛患者与健康参与者之间mPFC的非周期性成分不存在差异，且非周期性成分与疼痛强度之间无相关性。这些发现在不同亚型的慢性疼痛中均一致，并且在全脑分析中也有类似发现。通过对许多不同方法选择进行预注册和多宇宙分析，支持了这些发现的稳健性。总之，我们的结果表明，EEG非周期性成分无法区分慢性疼痛患者与健康个体。这些发现以及严谨的方法学方法可为未来研究提供指导，这些研究旨在探究慢性疼痛患者及其他人群中脑功能障碍的非侵入性、可扩展标志物。
