Research topic: Neuromodulation

Overview

Using transcranial direct current stimulation in chronic pain patients and healthy participants, we investigate the potential of non-invasive neuromodulation to influence chronic and experimental pain. Experimental pain paradigms include a comprehensive standardized battery of quantitative testing including innocuous and noxious thermal and mechanical stimuli, repetitive heat pain inducing sensitization, and electrical pain delivered by a nociception-specific electrode. The brain target area for the direct current stimulation is the primary motor cortex. Combining transcranial direct current stimulation with fMRI allows the evaluation of neurophysiological changes induced by non-invasive brain stimulation.

Our completed and ongoing trials suggest that:

  • Anodal or cathodal tDCS compared to sham stimulation does neither influence thermal pain perception and pain thresholds nor painful sensitization in healthy participants.

  • Anodal or cathodal tDCS compared to sham stimulation does not influence thermal or electrical pain perception or thresholds to experimental pain in participants with chronic low back pain.

  • Anodal tDCS compared to sham stimulation does not influence pain intensity or disability in patients with chronic low back pain.

  • Anodal and cathodal tDCS compared to sham stimulation changes cortical BOLD signals,which suggests that TDCS modulates the nociceptive signal but that this modulation does not reach significant changes in perception. This would ask for studies using different stimulation parameters and/or ways to stimulate (anatomy, protocols etc.).

Key publications

Jurgens, T. P., A. Schulte, T. Klein, and A. May. 2012. "Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Does Neither Modulate Results of a Quantitative Sensory Testing Protocol nor Ratings of Suprathreshold Heat Stimuli in Healthy Volunteers." Eur J Pain 16 (9): 1251-63. 22416036. doi:10.1002/j.1532-2149.2012.00135.x.

Luedtke, K., A. May, and T. P. Jurgens. 2012. "No Effect of a Single Session of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Experimentally Induced Pain in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain--an Exploratory Study." PLoS One 7 (11): e48857. 23189136. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048857.