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 style="text-align: justify;">A promising stream of investigations is targeting ongoing neural oscillations and whether their modulation could be related to the perception of pain. Using an electroencephalography (EEG) frequency tagging approach, sustained periodic thermonociceptive stimuli perceived as painful have been shown to modulate ongoing oscillations in the theta, alpha and beta bands at the frequency of stimulation. Nonetheless, it remains uncertain whether these modulations are indeed linked to pain perception. To test this relationship, we modulated pain perception using a cue-based expectation modulation paradigm and investigated whether ongoing oscillations in different frequency bands mirror the changes in stimulus perception. 40 healthy participants were instructed that a visual cue can precede either a high or low intensity stimulation. These cues were paired with 3 different levels of sustained periodic thermonociceptive stimuli (low, medium, high). Despite a strong effect of expectation on the perceived stimulus intensity, this effect was not reflected in the modulation of the ongoing oscillations, thus suggesting a potential dissociation of pain perception and these oscillatory activities. Rather, it seems that the intensity of stimulation is the primary generator of the responses collected using an EEG frequency-tagging approach.</p>
pain, nociception, ongoing oscillations, expectation, cognitive modulation, EEG