Brown Digital Repository | Item

Full Metadata

Overview

Year:: 2014
Contributor:: Joseph, Ganaelle (creator); Brown University. Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (research program); McLaughlin, Nicole (advisor)
Genre:: posters
Subject:: tDCS; Transcranial direct current stimulation; dACC; Dorsal lateral cingulate cortex; Acute pain; Pain tolerance; Cold pressor; Pressure algometer; Breath holding
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0BG2KWF

Files

Description

Abstract:: The pain field has moved from debating whether sex differences in the experience of pain exist to recognizing the importance of these differences. In 2006 the Sex, Gender and Pain Special Interest Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain recommended “that all pain researchers consider testing their hypotheses in both sexes, or if restricted by practical considerations, only in females. It is invalid to assume that data obtained in male subjects will generalize to females…” There is also a great debate around categorizing pain as a symptom or as a disease. Anyway, new non-pharmacological treatments for pain are needed. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique in which anodal and cathodal stimulation increases and decrease excitability of the underlying cortex, respectively. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), a component of brain circuits mediating learning in response to emotionally charged experiences, of 20 males and 17 females were stimulated using tDCS while they performed acute pain distress tolerance tasks such as the pressure algometer task, the cold pressure task, and a breath holding task. At 2mA for 20 minutes, no significant differences between males and females were found for any task performed during anodal tDCS. The difference between males and females was only significant for the pressure algometer task and breath holding during cathodal tDCS. In conclusion, better tasks are needed to study acute pain distress tolerance because males are more likely to reach the maximum safety limits set for these most commonly used tasks. tDCS should continue to be explored using different parameters, keeping in mind that the treatment may need to be adjusted based on the sex of the subject.

Content

Citation

Joseph, Ganaelle, "Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex on acute pain distress tolerance: Implication for sex differences" (2014). Summer Research Symposium. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0BG2KWF

Relations

Collection:

Summer Research Symposium

Each year, Brown University showcases the research of its undergraduates at the Summer Research Symposium. More than half of the student-researchers are UTRA recipients, while others receive funding from a variety of Brown-administered and national programs and fellowships and go …
...

Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex on acute pain distress tolerance: Implication for sex differences