Chiara Leu, Esther Glineur, Giulia LiberatiPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"
<p>A promising stream of investigations is targeting ongoing neural oscillations and whether their modulation could be relevant for the perception of pain. Specifically, sustained periodic thermonociceptive stimuli have been shown to modulate ongoing oscillations in the theta, alpha and beta frequency bands at the frequency of stimulation. Nonetheless, it remains uncertain whether these modulations are in fact linked to pain perception. To test this relationship, we aim to modulate pain perception using cognitive factors known to influence pain perception and investigate whether ongoing oscillations mirror those changes in their modulation. Using a cue-based expectation modulation paradigm, subjects will be instructed that a visual cue presented to them can precede either a high or low intensity thermonociceptive stimulation. These cues will be paired with 3 different levels of stimuli (low, medium, high). In a first phase, participants learn to associate the low cue with the low stimulus intensity (LL) and the high cue with the high stimulus intensity (HH). Importantly, the medium intensity stimulation is unfamiliar to the subject and will be paired with either a high or low intensity cue (HM and LM) in the second stage of the experiment. We hypothesize that - based on the associated cue paradigm - the stimuli delivered in the HM condition will be perceived as more intense compared to the LM condition. Further, we expect that the EEG signal will exhibit a congruent change in amplitude at the frequency of stimulation if the modulation of ongoing oscillations is indeed related to pain perception.</p>
pain, nociception, ongoing oscillations, expectation, cognitive modulation, EEG