ArticleAnnals of clinical and translational neurology2024
Somatotopy of the sensory thalamus: inputs from directional deep brain stimulation in pain patients.
Article in Annals of clinical and translational neurology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03399942 (Treatment of Chronic Refractory Pain by Combined Deep Brain Stimulation of the Anterior Cingulum and Sensory Thalamus), which is not on this map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Treatment of Chronic Refractory Pain by Combined Deep Brain Stimulation of the Anterior Cingulum and Sensory Thalamus: a Feasibility and Safety Study
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Somatotopic organization of the Thalamus: a rare case of isolated facial sensory change.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026Article
- Electromagnetic neuromodulation for chronic pain: historical context, contemporary modalities, and evidence gaps.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- A subpopulation of projections from the parabrachial nucleus to the central amygdala mediates itch.Scientific reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe sensory ventroposterior (VP) thalamic nuclei display a mediolateral somatotopic organization (respectively head, arm, and leg). We studied this somatotopy using directional VP deep brain stimulation (DBS) in patients treated for chronic neuropathic pain.
methodsSix patients with central (four) or peripheral (two) neuropathic pain were treated by VP DBS using directional leads in a prospective study (clinicaltrials.gov NCT03399942). Lead-DBS toolbox was used for leads localization, visualization, and modeling of the volume of tissue activated (VTA). Stimulation was delivered in each direction, 1 month after surgery and correlated to the location of stimulation-induced paresthesias. The somatotopy was modeled by correlating the respective locations of paresthesias and VTAs. We recorded 48 distinct paresthesia maps corresponding to 48 VTAs (including 36 related to directional stimulation).
resultsWe observed that, in each patient, respective body representations of the trunk, upper limb, lower limb, and head were closely located around the lead. These representations differed across patients, did not follow a common organization and were not concordant with the previously described somatotopic organization of the sensory thalamus.
interpretationThalamic reorganization has been reported in chronic pain patients compared to non-pain patients operated for movement disorders in previous studies using intraoperative recordings and micro-stimulation. Using a different methodology, namely 3D representation of the VTA by the directional postoperative stimulation through a stationary electrode, our study brings additional arguments in favor of a reorganization of the VP thalamic somatotopy in patients suffering from chronic neuropathic pain of central or peripheral origin.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.