ArticleThe journal of pain2026
Altered cortical alpha modulations and connectivity in complex regional pain syndrome.
Article in The journal of pain, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07791966 (Alpha tACS and Pain Avoidance Behavior in Chronic Pain Patients), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
Alpha tACS and Pain Avoidance Behavior in Chronic Pain Patients
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mechanisms Underlying Pain Avoidance in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Observational
- EEG-based clustering shows distinct separation of chronic pain patients before spinal cord stimulation surgery.NeuroImage · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Chronic pain alters resting-state cerebral alpha rhythms (8-12 Hz), including whole-brain slowing of peak alpha frequency (PAF). Nevertheless, how the power of brain activity at PAF (PAF power) or across the entire alpha frequency range (alpha power) is decreased or increased compared to healthy controls (HC) varies greatly across pain phenotypes. The brain regions exhibiting such alterations and their association with the pain severity experienced by patients are also unclear. The study addressed this question in participants experiencing complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS; 19 females and 10 males) against pain-free HC (14 females and 15 males). Resting-state magnetoencephalography imaging was used to estimate the power spectral density of neurophysiological activity across the cortex to identify group differences in alpha activity. The study found decreased alpha power and slower PAF in patients with CRPS, especially over bilateral posteromedial regions including the precuneus, paracentral and superior parietal cortices. In CRPS, pain severity was associated with the suppression of PAF power in the medial and lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Furthermore, the same PFC and OFC areas showed increased interregional alpha-band functional connectivity in patients with CRPS. Although the greatest pain-related alpha alterations mapped to sensory-discriminative areas, including the posteromedial cortex, PFC alpha activity encoded subjective CRPS pain severity. Hyperconnectivity between medial PFC and OFC further emphasized the affective-motivational nature of CRPS pain. Overall, these findings highlight the multiple functional roles of alpha activity in nociplastic conditions such as CRPS and provide potential targets for neuromodulatory interventions. PERSPECTIVE: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a debilitating disorder driven by altered brain processes. The authors characterize deviations in alpha brain activity in CRPS compared to healthy controls which could inform the development of novel neuromodulation therapies.
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Registered trials
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