Advances in pain research: quality of life, neural oscillations and emotion processing

Investigators: Viktor WITKOVSKÝ, Gejza WIMMER, Jr., Laura HAJZOKOVÁ , IMS SAS + foreign partners

In 2023, we made further progress in pain research in collaboration with our partners. With EuroPainClinics, we investigated the impact of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy on the quality of life of 470 patients with sciatic syndrome. We were able to show that the procedure led to a significant reduction in back and lower limb pain and an overall improvement in quality of life. Statistical analysis using standardized questionnaires EQ-5D-5L, EQ-VAS and other indices showed sustained positive results 12 months after surgery. The EQ-5D-5L is a quality of life measurement tool that is frequently used in medical practice and assesses people’s health status in physical, mental and social aspects. In collaboration with Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany, we investigated the variability of gamma oscillations induced by painful laser and tactile stimuli using EEG measurements. Considerable interindividual variability but also individual stability in the gamma oscillation range and in response patterns was found. The study suggests that an analysis based solely on aggregated EEG measurements at the group level may oversimplify heterogeneous individual responses to stimuli. Therefore, individual differences need to be taken into account in research. In a recent study, we addressed the dual aspects of pain perception, sensory-discriminative and affective-motivational, by assessing cortical processes during applied pain. In our research, we observed a stronger association between cortical data and ratings of pain unpleasantness, emphasizing the emotional and affective dimensions of pain. The Institute of Measurement Science of the Slovak Academy of Sciences played a key role in the design of methods for the assessment of questionnaires and other quality of life indices, as well as in statistical modelling and data analysis, ensuring reliable analysis and interpretation of the measured data.

Fig. 1. Example of gamma oscillation variability in six subjects in the experiment. Left: topographies of the independent component analysis (ICA) components. Topographies have been normalized and range from 1 to 1. Right: time-frequency representation (TFR) plots.

Project partners:

Europainclinics, Bratislava, Košice, Bardejov, Slovak Republic
Department of Neurology, LMU University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany

Related publications:

RAPČAN, R. – KOČAN, L.** – WITKOVSKÝ, Viktor – RAPČANOVÁ, S. – MLÁKA, J. – TIRPÁK, R. – BURIANEK, M. – KOČANOVÁ, H. – VAŠKOVÁ, J. – GAJDOŠ, M. Endoscopic discectomy of the herniated intervertebral disc and changes in quality-of-life EQ-5D-5L analysis. In Medicine, 2023, vol. 102, no. 26, art. no. e34188. (2022: 1.6 – IF, Q3 – JCR, 0.46 – SJR, Q3 – SJR). ISSN 0025-7974. Dostupné na: https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000034188 Typ: ADCA
STANKEWITZ, A. – MAYR, A. – IRVING, S. – WITKOVSKÝ, Viktor – SCHULZ, E.**. Pain and the emotional brain: Pain-related cortical processes are better reflected by affective evaluation than by cognitive evaluation. In Scientific Reports, 2023, vol. 13, art. no. 8273. (2022: 4.6 – IF, Q2 – JCR, 0.973 – SJR, Q1 – SJR). ISSN 2045-2322. Dostupné: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35294-2 Typ: ADCA
VALENTINI, E.* – SHINDY, A.* – WITKOVSKÝ, Viktor – STANKEWITZ, A. – SCHULZ, E.**. Interindividual variability and individual stability of pain- and touch-related neuronal gamma oscillations. In Journal of Neurophysiology, 2023, vol. 129, no. 6, p. 1400-1413. (2022: 2.5 – IF, Q3 – JCR, 1.067 – SJR, Q1 – SJR). ISSN 0022-3077. Dostupné: https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00530.2021 Typ: ADCA