Changes of EEG band oscillations to tonic cold pain and the behavioral inhibition and fight-flight-freeze systems

Abstract

Using electroencephalography (EEG) power measures within conventional delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma bands, the aims of the current study were to highlight cortical correlates of subjective perception of cold pain (CP) and the associations of these measures with behavioral inhibition system (BIS), fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS), and behavioral approach system personality traits. EEG was recorded in 55 healthy right-handed women under (i) a white noise interruption detection condition (Baseline); (ii) enduring CP induced by the cold cup test. CP and Baseline EEG band power scores within conventional frequency bands served for covariance analyses. We found that: (1) higher Pain scorers had higher EEG beta power changes at left frontal, midline central, posterior temporal leads; (2) higher BIS was associated with greater EEG delta activity changes at parietal scalp regions; (3) higher FFFS was associated with higher EEG delta activity changes at temporal and left-parietal regions, and with lower EEG gamma activity changes at right parietal regions. High FFFS, compared to Low FFFS scorers, also showed a lower gamma power across the midline, posterior temporal, and parietal regions. Results suggest a functional role of higher EEG beta activity in the subjective perception of tonic pain. EEG delta activity underpins conflict resolution system responsible for passive avoidance control of pain, while higher EEG delta and lower EEG gamma activity changes, taken together, underpin active avoidance system responsible for pain escape behavior.

Electroencephalographic Measurement on Post-stroke Sensory Deficiency in Response to Non-painful Cold Stimulation

“…These three bands were activated with increased power during the NPCS. In line with our observations of enhanced EEG beta RSP in both fronto-temporal and parietal brain regions ( Figure 5D ), it has been reported in the literature that beta activity increased bilaterally in the fronto-temporal cortex in unimpaired people during the cold stimulation, especially during the cold pain ( Chang et al, 2002 ; De Pascalis et al, 2019 ). Chang et al (2002) suggested that the increased beta power was related to the frontal and temporal muscle activities in response to cold stimulation, caused by situational tension factors like stress or pain.…”

“…For those unimpaired participants, multiple brain regions were activated bilaterally during the NPCS, which included the primary sensorimotor cortex, insula cortex, occipital cortex, prefrontal, and frontal cortices. These findings were in line with the literature ( Chang et al, 2002 , 2005 ; De Pascalis et al, 2019 ), and further verified the cortical processing of thermal stimulation was a distributed system, rather than a strict somatotopic arrangement ( Berman et al, 1998 ; Chang et al, 2005 ). In several fMRI studies, innocuous thermal-related activations in the anterior cingulate cortex and lateral-thalamus pathway were also reported ( Davis et al, 1998 ; Kwan et al, 2000 ; Mazzola et al, 2012 ).…”

“…In addition, the present results also found that beta RSP intensities were increased with the increase of stimulus intensities. De Pascalis et al (2019) reported a similar observation during the cold pain, and they found that the higher EEG beta power in the left frontal, midline central, posterior temporal cortices were correlated with the higher cold pain scores ( De Pascalis et al, 2019 ). Together with the increased beta power during the NPCS in this work, it implied that the beta power could be proportional to the intensities of cold stimulations whether it was painful or non-painful.…”

“…Participants were asked not to perform active cognition toward the cold stimuli during the EEG recording. The 90-s duration of rest was selected based upon the average clearance of cortical responses to cold stimulation in unimpaired persons ( Garkavenko et al, 2008 ; Shao et al, 2012 ; De Pascalis et al, 2019 ). The cycles of EEG measurement for each participant were repeated three times on each forearm.…”

Neural Oscillations: Understanding a Neural Code of Pain

“…Alpha band suppression during tonic pain stimulation was observed across multiple studies with the reduction in power correlating to pain ratings and salience (Colon and others 2017; Dowman and others 2008; Giehl and others 2014; Huishi Zhang and others 2016; Nir and others 2012; Peng and others 2014; Shao and others 2012). Other studies of tonic pain identified that beta and gamma band power was associated with stimulus intensity, pain intensity, and salience (Colon and others 2012; De Pascalis and others 2019; Gram and others 2015; Nickel and others 2017; Peng and others 2014; Schulz and others 2015). In many of the tonic pain studies, it was commonly observed that there was decreased alpha band and increased beta or gamma band power in response to tonic pain (Huber and others 2006a; Peng and others 2014; Shao and others 2012).…”