Highlights
- •Neuromodulatory effect of iTBS on facial perception is assessed.
- •iTBS produced facilitatory effect on facial perceptual distortion.
- •Magnitude of perceived size changes in the face region increased on iTBS of face SI.
- •Face SI is involved in the processing of facial perceptual distortion.
Abstract
Orofacial pain patients often report that the painful facial area is “swollen” without
clinical signs - known as perceptual distortion (PD). The neuromodulatory effect of
facilitatory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on PD in healthy
individuals was investigated, to provide further support that the primary somatosensory
cortex (SI) is involved in facial PD. Participants were allocated to active (n = 26)
or sham (n = 26) rTMS group in this case-control study. PD was induced experimentally
by injecting local anesthesia (LA) in the right infraorbital region. PD was measured
at baseline, 6 min after LA, immediately, 20 and 40 min after rTMS. Intermittent theta-burst
stimulation (iTBS) as active rTMS and sham rTMS was applied to the face representation
area of SI at 10 min after LA. The magnitude of PD was compared between the groups.
The magnitude of PD significantly increased immediately after iTBS compared with sham
rTMS (P = .009). The PD was significantly higher immediately after iTBS compared to 6 min
after LA (P = .004) in the active rTMS group, but not in the sham rTMS group (P = .054). iTBS applied to a somatotopic-relevant cortical region appears to facilitate
facial PD further supporting the involvement of SI in the processing of one´s own
face and PD.
Perspective
This study provides information on neural substrate responsible for processing of
perceptual distortion of the face which is speculated to contribute to the chronification
of orofacial pain. The findings of this study may aid in mechanism-based management
of the condition in orofacial pain disorders and possibly other chronic pain states.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 14, 2022
Accepted:
December 27,
2021
Received in revised form:
December 10,
2021
Received:
September 8,
2021
Footnotes
Declaration of Competing Interest: None of the authors has any conflicts of interests
Funding: This study was funded by Det Frie Forskningsråd, Danish Council for Independent Research with grant reference number 6110-00156.
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 by United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc.
