Effect of pain perception on the heartbeat evoked potential

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of acute tonic pain on the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP) and to test whether or not pain perception can be reflected by the HEP.

Methods: Simultaneous electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) were recorded from 21 healthy young adults in three conditions: passive no-task control, no-pain control and cold pain. The HEP was obtained by using ECG R-peaks as event triggers.

Results: Prominent HEP deflection was observed in both control conditions mainly over the frontal and central locations, while it was significantly suppressed in the cold pain condition over the right-frontal, right-central and midline locations. A comparison of the data in the first and last 5 min of cold pain condition showed that lower subjective pain ratings were accompanied by higher HEP magnitudes. A correlation analysis showed that the mean HEP magnitude over the midline locations was significantly negatively correlated with subjective pain ratings.

Conclusions: Cold pain induces significant suppression of the HEP across a number of scalp locations, and the suppression is correlated with self-report of pain.

Significance: The HEP has the potential to serve as an alternative pain measure.