Spatial and temporal patterns of brain neural activity mediating human thermal sensations

Abstract

This study aimed to elucidate the spatial and temporal patterns of brain neural activity that are associated with cold and hot sensations. Participants (n = 20) sat in a controlled room with their eyes closed and received local thermal stimuli to the right fingers using a Peltier apparatus. The thermal stimuli were repeated 40 times using a paired-thermal stimulus paradigm, comprising a 15 s-reference stimulus (32 °C), followed by 10 s-conditioned stimuli (24 °C and 40 °C, cold and hot conditions, respectively), for which 15-channel electroencephalography (EEG) signals were continuously monitored. To identify the patterns of brain neural activity, an independent component (IC) analysis was applied to the preprocessed EEG data. The equivalent current dipole locations were estimated, followed by clustering of the ICs with a dipole residual variance of <15 %. Subsequently, event-related spectral perturbations were analyzed in each identified cluster to calculate the power changes across specific frequency ranges. The right precentral gyrus, precuneus, medial frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, cuneus, cingulate gyrus, left precentral gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, and cingulate gyrus were activated in both cold and hot conditions. In most activated regions, EEG power temporal changes were observed across the frequency ranges and were different between the two conditions. These results may suggest that cold and hot sensations are processed through different temporal brain neural activity patterns in overlapping brain regions.