Assessing the balance between excitation and inhibition in chronic pain through the aperiodic component of EEG
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 o...
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| Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2025-01-01
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| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/101727 |
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| author | Cristina Gil Avila Elisabeth S May Felix S Bott Laura Tiemann Vanessa Hohn Henrik Heitmann Paul Theo Zebhauser Joachim Gross Markus Ploner |
| author_facet | Cristina Gil Avila Elisabeth S May Felix S Bott Laura Tiemann Vanessa Hohn Henrik Heitmann Paul Theo Zebhauser Joachim Gross Markus Ploner |
| author_sort | Cristina Gil Avila |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e300ec26f5ab446088b4c5102a1da838 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj-art-e300ec26f5ab446088b4c5102a1da8382025-01-13T14:21:07ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2025-01-011310.7554/eLife.101727Assessing the balance between excitation and inhibition in chronic pain through the aperiodic component of EEGCristina Gil Avila0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3789-0644Elisabeth S May1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8558-6447Felix S Bott2Laura Tiemann3Vanessa Hohn4Henrik Heitmann5Paul Theo Zebhauser6Joachim Gross7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3994-1006Markus Ploner8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7767-7170Department 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, GermanyDepartment 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, GermanyDepartment 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, GermanyDepartment 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, GermanyDepartment 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, GermanyDepartment 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; Center for Interdisciplinary Pain Medicine, TUM School of Medicine and Health, TUM, Munich, Germany; Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, School of Medicine and Health, TUM, Munich, GermanyDepartment 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; Center for Interdisciplinary Pain Medicine, TUM School of Medicine and Health, TUM, Munich, GermanyInstitute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, Münster, GermanyDepartment 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; Center for Interdisciplinary Pain Medicine, TUM School of Medicine and Health, TUM, Munich, GermanyChronic 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.https://elifesciences.org/articles/101727chronic painelectroencephalographyhuman |
| spellingShingle | Cristina Gil Avila Elisabeth S May Felix S Bott Laura Tiemann Vanessa Hohn Henrik Heitmann Paul Theo Zebhauser Joachim Gross Markus Ploner Assessing the balance between excitation and inhibition in chronic pain through the aperiodic component of EEG eLife chronic pain electroencephalography human |
| title | Assessing the balance between excitation and inhibition in chronic pain through the aperiodic component of EEG |
| title_full | Assessing the balance between excitation and inhibition in chronic pain through the aperiodic component of EEG |
| title_fullStr | Assessing the balance between excitation and inhibition in chronic pain through the aperiodic component of EEG |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing the balance between excitation and inhibition in chronic pain through the aperiodic component of EEG |
| title_short | Assessing the balance between excitation and inhibition in chronic pain through the aperiodic component of EEG |
| title_sort | assessing the balance between excitation and inhibition in chronic pain through the aperiodic component of eeg |
| topic | chronic pain electroencephalography human |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/101727 |
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