Human exposure to a specific pulsed magnetic field: effects on thermal sensory and pain thresholds

Shupak, Naomi M; Prato, Frank S.; Thomas, Alex

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2004.03.069

Cited by 90 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…These fMRI effects were seen after a 15-min exposure, consistent with effects seen in humans on EEG from similar length exposures (Cook et al 2005) and anti-nociception seen in snails and rodents also after 15-min exposures (Thomas et al 1997). However, in previous human studies investigating subjective relief from both acute and chronic pain, longer periods of exposure were used (Shupak et al 2004;Thomas et al 2007). Here, the short 15-min exposure did not lead to subjective effectiveness, yet the pulsed magnetic field exposure did induce significant changes in functional activity.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Functional changes were largely detected only in central structures, which could have been anticipated by the previous work indicating that pain, but not sensory thresholds were affected (Shupak et al 2004). Some changes in the somatosensory areas were observed over time, but there was no significant interaction with magnetic field exposure.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…It has been further reported that this pulsed magnetic field can induce analgesia in humans (Shupak et al 2004;Thomas et al 2007). Moreover, in humans, the effect is specific to nociception and does not affect thermal sensory thresholds (Shupak et al 2004), and is effective on both acute and chronic pain (Thomas et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

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Low-frequency pulsed electromagnetic field exposure can alter neuroprocessing in humans

Robertson

Théberge

Weller

et al. 2009

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (from DC to 300 Hz) have been shown to affect pain sensitivity in snails, rodents and humans. Here, a functional magnetic resonance imaging study demonstrates how the neuromodulation effect of these magnetic fields influences the processing of acute thermal pain in normal volunteers. Significant interactions were found between pre-and post-exposure activation between the sham and exposed groups for the ipsilateral (right) insula, anterior cingulate and bilateral hippocampus/caudate areas. These results show, for the first time, that the neuromodulation induced by exposure to low-intensity low-frequency magnetic fields can be observed in humans using functional brain imaging and that the detection mechanism for these effects may be different from those used by animals for orientation and navigation. Magnetoreception may be more common than presently thought.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

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Low-frequency pulsed electromagnetic field exposure can alter neuroprocessing in humans

Robertson

Théberge

Weller

et al. 2009

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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“…Thomas et al [1997] found that a specific, pulsed, extremely low frequency magnetic field with a peak field of 100 mT induced antinociception in the land snail and that this was partly due to m and d opioid receptor stimulation. Similar pulsed field exposures have been investigated by this group and have been similarly found to induce opioidrelated analgesic effects in snails ], mice [Shupak et al, 2004a], and humans [Shupak et al, 2004b[Shupak et al, , 2006. Shielding the ambient magnetic field with a Mu metal box was also found to induce opioid-related analgesia in mice, although this effect took several days of 1 h exposures to manifest itself [Prato et al, 2005].…”

Section: Mechanisms: Opioidssupporting

confidence: 57%

The influence of extremely low frequency magnetic fields on cytoprotection and repair

Robertson

Thomas

Bureau

et al. 2006

Bioelectromagnetics

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Ischemia-reperfusion injuries, such as those suffered from various types of cardiovascular disease, are major causes of death and disability. For relatively short periods of ischemia, much of the damage is potentially reversible and in fact, does not occur until the influx of oxygen during the reperfusion stage. Because of this, there is a window of opportunity to protect the ischemic tissue. Here, we review several mechanisms of protection, such as heat shock proteins, opioids, collateral blood flow, and nitric oxide induction, and the evidence indicating that magnetic fields may be used as a means of providing protection via each of these mechanisms. While there are few studies demonstrating direct protection with magnetic field therapies, there are a number of published reports indicating that electromagnetic fields may be able to influence some of the biochemical systems with protective applications.

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“…Furthermore, low intensity magnetic fields are clinically relevant for two reasons. Firstly, in humans, fields in the millitesla range delivered to the brain induce analgesia 25– 27 , and alleviate depression 28 . Secondly, even though traditional rTMS is considered to be focal, magnetic fields of lower intensity are delivered outside of the focal area, raising the possibility that low intensity stimulation may be contributing to therapeutic effects by acting on interconnected brain regions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long term delivery of pulsed magnetic fields does not improve learning or alter dendritic spine density in the mouse hippocampus

2013

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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is thought to facilitate brain plasticity. However, few studies address anatomical changes following rTMS in relation to behaviour. We delivered 5 weeks of daily pulsed rTMS stimulation to ephrin-A2 -/- and wildtype mice (n=10 per genotype) undergoing a visual learning task and analysed learning performance, as well as spine density, in the dentate gyrus molecular and CA1 pyramidal cell layers in Golgi-stained brain sections. We found that neither learning behaviour, nor hippocampal spine density was affected by long term rTMS. Our negative results highlight the lack of deleterious side effects in normal subjects and are consistent with previous studies suggesting that rTMS has a bigger effect on abnormal or injured brain substrates than on normal/control structures.

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Human exposure to a specific pulsed magnetic field: effects on thermal sensory and pain thresholds

Cited by 90 publications

References 22 publications

Low-frequency pulsed electromagnetic field exposure can alter neuroprocessing in humans

Low-frequency pulsed electromagnetic field exposure can alter neuroprocessing in humans

The influence of extremely low frequency magnetic fields on cytoprotection and repair

Long term delivery of pulsed magnetic fields does not improve learning or alter dendritic spine density in the mouse hippocampus

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