ArticleJournal of neuroscience methods2023
The reliability of two prospective cortical biomarkers for pain: EEG peak alpha frequency and TMS corticomotor excitability.
Article in Journal of neuroscience methods, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Peak Alpha Frequency Is Not Significantly Altered by Five Days of Experimental Pain and Repetitive Transcranial Stimulation of the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Trial
- Association of widespread pain and peak alpha frequency cannot be isolated to a single network.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Identifying neural oscillation and phase synchronization abnormalities in migraine and their predictive values in transcranial magnetic stimulation.Journal of oral & facial pain and headache · 2026Article
- Article
- Peak alpha frequency is related to the degree of widespread pain, but not pain intensity or duration, among people with urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome.Pain reports · 2025Article
- Pain and the Brain: A Systematic Review of Methods, EEG Biomarkers, Limitations, and Future Directions.Neurology international · 2025Review
- The effect of prolonged elbow pain and rTMS on TMS-evoked potentials: A TMS-EEG study.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- A novel cortical biomarker signature predicts individual pain sensitivity.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- The reliability and validity of rapid transcranial magnetic stimulation mapping for muscles under active contraction.BMC neuroscience · 2024Article
- A 5-day course of rTMS before pain onset ameliorates future pain and increases sensorimotor peak alpha frequency.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Article
- Fear and pain slow the brain.Pain · 2023Article
- In search of a composite biomarker for chronic pain by way of EEG and machine learning: where do we currently stand?Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Review
- The effect of depression on the peak alpha frequency as a biomarker of pain sensitivity.Neurobiology of pain (Cambridge, Mass.)Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMany pain biomarkers fail to move from discovery to clinical application, attributed to poor reliability and an inability to accurately classify at-risk individuals. Preliminary evidence has shown that high pain sensitivity is associated with slow peak alpha frequency (PAF), and depression of corticomotor excitability (CME), potentially due to impairments in ascending sensory and descending motor pathway signalling respectively NEW
methodThe present study evaluated the reliability of PAF and CME responses during sustained pain. Specifically, we determined whether, over several days of pain, a) PAF remains stable and b) individuals show two stable and distinct CME responses: facilitation and depression. Participants were given an injection of nerve growth factor (NGF) into the right masseter muscle on Day 0 and Day 2, inducing sustained pain. Electroencephalography (EEG) to assess PAF and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to assess CME were recorded on Day 0, Day 2 and Day 5.
resultsUsing a weighted peak estimate, PAF reliability (n = 75) was in the excellent range even without standard pre-processing and ∼2 min recording length. Using a single peak estimate, PAF reliability was in the moderate-good range. For CME (n = 74), 80% of participants showed facilitation or depression of CME beyond an optimal cut-off point, with the stability of these changes in the good range. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING
methodsNo study has assessed the reliability of PAF or feasibility of classifying individuals as facilitators/depressors, in response to sustained pain. PAF was reliable even in the presence of pain. The use of a weighted peak estimate for PAF is recommended, as excellent test-retest reliability can be obtained even when using minimal pre-processing and ∼2 min recording. We also showed that 80% of individuals exhibit either facilitation or depression of CME, with these changes being stable across sessions.
conclusionsOur study provides support for the reliability of PAF and CME as prospective cortical biomarkers. As such, our paper adds important methodological advances to the rapidly growing field of pain biomarkers.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.