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标题：Temporal–spectral signaling of sensory information and expectations in the cerebral processing of pain
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作者：Moritz M. Nickel ; Laura Tiemann ; Vanessa D. Hohn 等
期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2022
卷号：119
期号：1
DOI：10.1073/pnas.2116616119
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Significance Pain is not only shaped by sensory information but also by an individual’s expectations. Here, we investigated how commonly analyzed electroencephalography (EEG) responses to pain signal sensory information, expectations, and discrepancies thereof (prediction errors) in the processing of pain. Bayesian analysis confirmed that pain perception was shaped by objective sensory information and expectations. In contrast, EEG responses at different latencies (including the N1, N2, and P2 components) and frequencies (including alpha, beta, and gamma oscillations) were shaped by sensory information but not by expectations. Thus, EEG responses to pain are more involved in signaling sensory information than in signaling expectations or prediction errors. Expectation effects are obviously mediated by other brain mechanisms than the effects of sensory information on pain. The perception of pain is shaped by somatosensory information about threat. However, pain is also influenced by an individual’s expectations. Such expectations can result in clinically relevant modulations and abnormalities of pain. In the brain, sensory information, expectations (predictions), and discrepancies thereof (prediction errors) are signaled by an extended network of brain areas which generate evoked potentials and oscillatory responses at different latencies and frequencies. However, a comprehensive picture of how evoked and oscillatory brain responses signal sensory information, predictions, and prediction errors in the processing of pain is lacking so far. Here, we therefore applied brief painful stimuli to 48 healthy human participants and independently modulated sensory information (stimulus intensity) and expectations of pain intensity while measuring brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG). Pain ratings confirmed that pain intensity was shaped by both sensory information and expectations. In contrast, Bayesian analyses revealed that stimulus-induced EEG responses at different latencies (the N1, N2, and P2 components) and frequencies (alpha, beta, and gamma oscillations) were shaped by sensory information but not by expectations. Expectations, however, shaped alpha and beta oscillations before the painful stimuli. These findings indicate that commonly analyzed EEG responses to painful stimuli are more involved in signaling sensory information than in signaling expectations or mismatches of sensory information and expectations. Moreover, they indicate that the effects of expectations on pain are served by brain mechanisms which differ from those conveying effects of sensory information on pain.
关键词：enpainbrainelectroencephalographyoscillationspredictive coding