The effect of high-frequency conditioning stimulation of human skin on reported pain intensity and event-related potentials

High-frequency conditioning electrical stimulation (HFS) of human skin induces an increased pain sensitivity to mechanical stimuli in the surrounding nonconditioned skin. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of HFS on reported pain sensitivity to single electrical stimuli applied within the area of conditioning stimulation. We also investigated the central nervous system responsiveness to these electrical stimuli by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs). Single electrical test stimuli were applied in the conditioned area before and 30 min after HFS. During electrical test stimulation, the reported pain intensity (numerical rating scale) and EEG (ERPs) were measured. Thirty minutes after conditioning stimulation, we observed a decrease of reported pain intensity at both the conditioned and control (opposite arm) skin site in response to the single electrical test stimuli. In contrast, we observed enhanced ERP amplitudes after HFS at the conditioned skin site, compared with control site, in response to the single electrical test stimuli. Recently, it has been proposed that ERPs, at least partly, reflect a saliency detection system. Therefore, the enhanced ERPs might reflect enhanced saliency to potentially threatening stimuli.

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High frequency electrical stimulation induces a long-lasting enhancement of event-related potentials but does not change the perception elicited by intra-epidermal electrical stimuli delivered to the area of secondary mechanical hyperalgesia

10.1101/282335 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

José Biurrun Manresa ◽

Ole Kæseler Andersen ◽

André Mouraux ◽

Emanuel N. van den Broeke

Keyword(s):

Electrical Stimulation ◽

High Frequency ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Secondary Hyperalgesia ◽

Brain Potentials ◽

Brain Responses ◽

Related Potentials ◽

The Central Nervous System ◽

Electrical Stimuli ◽

N2 Wave

ABSTRACTHigh frequency electrical stimulation (HFS) of the skin induces increased pinprick sensitivity in the surrounding unconditioned skin (secondary hyperalgesia). Moreover, it has been shown that brief high intensity CO2 laser stimuli, activating both Aδ- and C-fiber nociceptors, are perceived as more intense when delivered in the area of secondary hyperalgesia. To investigate the contribution of A-fiber nociceptors to secondary hyperalgesia the present study assessed if the perception and brain responses elicited by low-intensity intra-epidermal electrical stimulation (IES), a method preferentially activating Aδ-fiber nociceptors, are increased in the area of secondary hyperalgesia. HFS was delivered to one of the two forearms of seventeen healthy volunteers. Mechanical pinprick stimulation and IES were delivered at both arms before HFS (T0), 20 minutes after HFS (T1) and 45 minutes after HFS (T2). In all participants, HFS induced an increase in pinprick perception at the HFS-treated arm, adjacent to the site of HFS. This increase was significant at both T1 and T2. HFS did not affect the percept elicited by IES, but did enhance the magnitude of the N2 wave of IES-evoked brain potentials, both at T1 and at T2. HFS induced a long-lasting enhancement of the N2 wave elicited by IES in the area of secondary hyperalgesia, indicating that HFS enhances the responsiveness of the central nervous system to nociceptive inputs conveyed by AMH-II nociceptors. However, we found no evidence that HFS affects the perception elicited by IES, which may suggest that AMH-II nociceptors do not contribute to HFS-induced secondary hyperalgesia.

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High frequency electrical stimulation induces a long-lasting enhancement of event-related potentials but does not change the perception elicited by intra-epidermal electrical stimuli delivered to the area of increased mechanical pinprick sensitivity

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0203365 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (9) ◽

pp. e0203365 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

José Biurrun Manresa ◽

Ole Kæseler Andersen ◽

André Mouraux ◽

Emanuel N. van den Broeke

Keyword(s):

Electrical Stimulation ◽

High Frequency ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Electrical Stimuli

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Frequency Sensitivity of Neural Responses to English Verb Argument Structure Violations

Collabra Psychology ◽

10.1525/collabra.87 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jona Sassenhagen ◽

Ryan Blything ◽

Elena V. M. Lieven ◽

Ben Ambridge

Keyword(s):

Statistical Learning ◽

High Frequency ◽

Argument Structure ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Online Processing ◽

Verb Argument Structure ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Intransitive Verbs

How are verb-argument structure preferences acquired? Children typically receive very little negative evidence, raising the question of how they come to understand the restrictions on grammatical constructions. Statistical learning theories propose stochastic patterns in the input contain sufficient clues. For example, if a verb is very common, but never observed in transitive constructions, this would indicate that transitive usage of that verb is illegal. Ambridge et al. (2008) have shown that in offline grammaticality judgements of intransitive verbs used in transitive constructions, low-frequency verbs elicit higher acceptability ratings than high-frequency verbs, as predicted if relative frequency is a cue during statistical learning. Here, we investigate if the same pattern also emerges in on-line processing of English sentences. EEG was recorded while healthy adults listened to sentences featuring transitive uses of semantically matched verb pairs of differing frequencies. We replicate the finding of higher acceptabilities of transitive uses of low- vs. high-frequency intransitive verbs. Event-Related Potentials indicate a similar result: early electrophysiological signals distinguish between misuse of high- vs low-frequency verbs. This indicates online processing shows a similar sensitivity to frequency as off-line judgements, consistent with a parser that reflects an original acquisition of grammatical constructions via statistical cues. However, the nature of the observed neural responses was not of the expected, or an easily interpretable, form, motivating further work into neural correlates of online processing of syntactic constructions.

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Heterosynaptic facilitation of mechanical nociceptive input is dependent on the frequency of conditioning stimulation

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00274.2019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 122 (3) ◽

pp. 994-1001 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

E. N. van den Broeke ◽

S. Gousset ◽

J. Bouvy ◽

A. Stouffs ◽

L. Lebrun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Human Skin ◽

High Frequency ◽

Receptor Activation ◽

High Frequency Stimulation ◽

Secondary Hyperalgesia ◽

Conditioning Stimulation ◽

Maximal Increase ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Neurokinin 1 ◽

Electrical Conditioning

High-frequency burstlike electrical conditioning stimulation (HFS) applied to human skin induces an increase in mechanical pinprick sensitivity of the surrounding unconditioned skin (a phenomenon known as secondary hyperalgesia). The present study assessed the effect of frequency of conditioning stimulation on the development of this increased pinprick sensitivity in humans. In a first experiment, we compared the increase in pinprick sensitivity induced by HFS, using monophasic non-charge-compensated pulses and biphasic charge-compensated pulses. High-frequency stimulation, traditionally delivered with non-charge-compensated square-wave pulses, may induce a cumulative depolarization of primary afferents and/or changes in pH at the electrode-tissue interface due to the accumulation of a net residue charge after each pulse. Both could contribute to the development of the increased pinprick sensitivity in a frequency-dependent fashion. We found no significant difference in the increase in pinprick sensitivity between HFS delivered with charge-compensated and non-charge-compensated pulses, indicating that the possible contribution of charge accumulation when non-charge-compensated pulses are used is negligible. In a second experiment, we assessed the effect of different frequencies of conditioning stimulation (5, 20, 42, and 100 Hz) using charge-compensated pulses on the development of increased pinprick sensitivity. The maximal increase in pinprick sensitivity was observed at intermediate frequencies of stimulation (20 and 42 Hz). It is hypothesized that the stronger increase in pinprick sensitivity at intermediate frequencies may be related to the stronger release of substance P and/or neurokinin-1 receptor activation expressed at lamina I neurons after C-fiber stimulation. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Burstlike electrical conditioning stimulation applied to human skin induces an increase in pinprick sensitivity in the surrounding unconditioned skin (a phenomenon referred to as secondary hyperalgesia). Here we show that the development of the increase in pinprick sensitivity is dependent on the frequency of the burstlike electrical conditioning stimulation.

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269 HABITUATION EFFECTS ON SOMATOSENSORY EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS (SEPS) ELICITED BY PAINFUL ELECTRICAL STIMULI

European Journal of Pain ◽

10.1016/s1090-3801(06)60272-3 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 10 (S1) ◽

pp. S72b-S72

Author(s):

C.M. Rijn ◽

M.L.A. Jongsma ◽

E. Broeke ◽

S. Postma ◽

R. Lubbe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Event Related Potentials ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Electrical Stimuli

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Event-Related Potentials and Recognition Memory for Low- and High-Frequency Words

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.1992.4.1.69 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 69-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 103

Author(s):

Michael D. Rugg ◽

Michael C. Doyle

Keyword(s):

Recognition Memory ◽

High Frequency ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Recognition Performance ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Process Models ◽

New Words ◽

Related Potentials ◽

The Right

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects made recognition judgments on high- and low-frequency words, half of which had previously been presented in an incidental study task. Compared to high-frequency items, low-frequency words were associated with superior recognition performance, and attracted a higher proportion of confident judgments. In the case of the low-frequency words only, the region of the ERPs post-500 msec evoked by correctly classified, previously studied (old) words was more positive-going than was the same region of the EWs to nonstudied (new) words. These “old/new” ERP differences were larger from electrodes over the left than over the right hemisphere. This old/new by frequency interaction held when EWs were formed only from words that attracted confident judgments. It is argued that these data are consistent with the ideas that (1) post-500 msec “old/ new” EW differences in recognition memory tasks reflect differences in old and new words' levels of relative familiarity, and (2) the recognition memory advantage for low-frequency words results, at least in part, from the higher level of relative familiarity engendered at test by previously studied low-frequency items. The data are interpreted as providing support for “two-process” models of recognition memory.

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Words in the brain's language

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x9900182x ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 253-279 ◽

Cited By ~ 633

Author(s):

Friedemann Pulvermüller

Keyword(s):

Neuronal Activity ◽

High Frequency ◽

Word Processing ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Function Words ◽

Cell Assemblies ◽

Frequency Responses ◽

Related Potentials ◽

The Brain

If the cortex is an associative memory, strongly connected cell assemblies will form when neurons in different cortical areas are frequently active at the same time. The cortical distributions of these assemblies must be a consequence of where in the cortex correlated neuronal activity occurred during learning. An assembly can be considered a functional unit exhibiting activity states such as full activation (“ignition”) after appropriate sensory stimulation (possibly related to perception) and continuous reverberation of excitation within the assembly (a putative memory process). This has implications for cortical topographies and activity dynamics of cell assemblies forming during language acquisition, in particular for those representing words. Cortical topographies of assemblies should be related to aspects of the meaning of the words they represent, and physiological signs of cell assembly ignition should be followed by possible indicators of reverberation. The following postulates are discussed in detail: (1) assemblies representing phonological word forms are strongly lateralized and distributed over perisylvian cortices; (2) assemblies representing highly abstract words such as grammatical function words are also strongly lateralized and restricted to these perisylvian regions; (3) assemblies representing concrete content words include additional neurons in both hemispheres; (4) assemblies representing words referring to visual stimuli include neurons in visual cortices; and (5) assemblies representing words referring to actions include neurons in motor cortices. Two main sources of evidence are used to evaluate these proposals: (a) imaging studies focusing on localizing word processing in the brain, based on stimulus-triggered event-related potentials (ERPs), positron emission tomography (PET), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and (b) studies of the temporal dynamics of fast activity changes in the brain, as revealed by high-frequency responses recorded in the electroencephalogram (EEG) and magnetoencephalogram (MEG). These data provide evidence for processing differences between words and matched meaningless pseudowords, and between word classes, such as concrete content and abstract function words, and words evoking visual or motor associations. There is evidence for early word class-specific spreading of neuronal activity and for equally specific high-frequency responses occurring later. These results support a neurobiological model of language in the Hebbian tradition. Competing large-scale neuronal theories of language are discussed in light of the data summarized. Neurobiological perspectives on the problem of serial order of words in syntactic strings are considered in closing.

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