ArticleBritish journal of pain2026
Advancing pain assessment in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy for investigating brain activity.
Article in British journal of pain, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Pain in Alzheimer's Disease: Disrupted Multilevel Integration of Nociception, Affective Processing and Clinical Expression Across Clinical and Preclinical Evidence.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Sham tDCS controls: blinding, reliability, and a specification-grade checklist.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Pain assessment in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) is challenging due to cognitive decline and communication barriers, limiting the reliability of self-report and observational tools. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) offers a noninvasive measure of cerebral hemodynamic responses and may serve as an objective biomarker for pain. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of fNIRS for pain assessment in ADRD, using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) solely as a controlled cortical modulation paradigm to test fNIRS sensitivity, rather than as a therapeutic intervention. Methods: Forty older adults with mild to moderate ADRD were randomized to active ( Results: NRS and MOBID-2 scores were significantly correlated at baseline ( Conclusion: fNIRS demonstrated feasibility as an objective pain assessment tool in ADRD. tDCS served only as a probe to induce cortical modulation for evaluating fNIRS performance. In this study, tDCS functioned as a probe to induce cortical modulation for evaluating fNIRS sensitivity, not as a therapeutic intervention. Larger trials are needed to confirm fNIRS validity for clinical application.
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