Targeting the Endogenous Pain Modulation System

Abstract

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been applied recently over the primary motor cortex and has recently been shown to neuroplasticity of the endogenous pain modulation (EPM) system. The aim of the current study is to present early results related to motor cortex and spinal neuroplasticity control of the EPM in healthy volunteers by measuring pressure pain threshold and cold pain intensity as outcome measures before and after M1 cortex or suboccipital DCS. Healthy volunteers (aged 18–40 years), in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial, were assigned to four DCS groups: sham-M1 cortex DCS, active-M1 cortex DCS, sham-suboccipital (SODCS) and active-SODCS. Data collected to date suggest that both M1 and spinal-DCS modulate thermal noxious stimuli. However, the demonstration of EPM neuroplasticity requires careful attention to the test and conditioning paradigm.