Sensory and cortical biomarkers unveil pain modulation mechanisms induced by targeted multisensory neurostimulation.

IF 5.2 2区医学 Q1 ENGINEERING, BIOMEDICAL

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation Pub Date : 2026-04-29 DOI:10.1186/s12984-026-01998-5

Giuseppe Valerio Aurucci, Noemi Gozzi, Andrea Cimolato, Markus Wagner, Carl Moritz Zipser, Stanisa Raspopovic

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Chronic neuropathic pain is a complex experience that poses a major challenge in personalized treatment. Identifying objective biomarkers of pain modulation is critical to validate emerging non-pharmacological therapies with reliable endpoints, overcoming the limitations of simplified subjective scales.

Methods: Here, we introduce a multimodal monitoring framework that integrates behavioral, sensory, and cortical assessments to provide a comprehensive evaluation of a multisensory neurostimulation treatment combining immersive VR with targeted neurostimulation (VR+tSTIM). We compared the effects of this intervention with an active control in 18 participants with chronic neuropathic pain over multiple days.

Results: VR+tSTIM led to a clinically significant reduction in self-reported pain intensity. This reduction was accompanied by sensory measures, with participants in the VR+tSTIM group showing enhanced tactile acuity and improved proprioceptive accuracy, effects that did not appear in the control group. Treatment effectiveness was further associated with cortical EEG signatures of decreased gamma and delta power together with increased alpha power.

Conclusions: These findings identify potential sensory and cortical biomarkers associated with analgesia and suggest that pain relief in neuropathy may involve the modulation of both peripheral and central mechanisms. This comprehensive assessment paradigm establishes a foundation for the objective monitoring of treatment efficacy and advances the search for mechanistic biomarkers of pain modulation in clinical neuroengineering.

Trial registration: This study was approved by the Kantonale Ethikkommission Zürich (Nr. 2021-02258).

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感觉和皮层生物标志物揭示了靶向多感觉神经刺激诱导的疼痛调节机制。

背景：慢性神经性疼痛是一种复杂的经历，对个性化治疗提出了重大挑战。确定疼痛调节的客观生物标志物对于验证具有可靠终点的新兴非药物疗法至关重要，克服了简化主观量表的局限性。方法：在这里，我们引入了一个多模式监测框架，将行为、感觉和皮层评估结合起来，对沉浸式VR和靶向神经刺激（VR+tSTIM）相结合的多感觉神经刺激治疗进行全面评估。我们在18名患有慢性神经性疼痛的参与者中比较了这种干预与主动控制的效果。结果：VR+tSTIM可显著降低患者自我报告的疼痛强度。这种减少伴随着感官测量，VR+tSTIM组的参与者表现出增强的触觉敏度和改善的本体感觉准确性，这些效果在对照组中没有出现。治疗效果进一步与皮质脑电图特征的下降和δ功率以及α功率的增加有关。结论：这些发现确定了与镇痛相关的潜在感觉和皮层生物标志物，并提示神经病变的疼痛缓解可能涉及外周和中枢机制的调节。这种综合评估模式为客观监测治疗效果奠定了基础，并推动了临床神经工程中疼痛调节机制生物标志物的研究。试验注册：该研究已获得Kantonale Ethikkommission zrich批准（Nr. 2021-02258）。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation 工程技术-工程：生物医学

CiteScore

9.60

自引率

3.90%

发文量

122

审稿时长

24 months

期刊介绍： Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation considers manuscripts on all aspects of research that result from cross-fertilization of the fields of neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and physical medicine & rehabilitation.