Electroencephalographic frontal synchrony and caudal asynchrony during painful hand immersion in cold water

Abstract Recent studies in our laboratory showed that cortical theta oscillations correlate with pain in rodent models. In this study, we sought to validate our pre-clinical data using EEG recordings in humans during immersion of the hand in ice cold water, a moderately noxious stimulus. Power spectral analysis shows that an increase in pain score is associated with an increase in power amplitude within a frequency range of 6–7 Hz at the frontal (Fz) electrode. These results are consistent with our previous pre-clinical animal studies and the clinical literature. We also report a novel reduction in power at the caudal (O1) electrode within a broader 3–30 Hz rand and decreased coherence between Fz and C3, C4 electrodes within the theta (4–8 Hz) and low beta (13–21 Hz) bands, while coherence (an indirect measure of functional connectivity) between Fz and O1 increased within the theta and alpha (8–12 Hz) bands. We argue that pain is associated with EEG frontal synchrony and caudal asynchrony, leading to the disruption of cortico-cortical connectivity.