transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) for the treatment and investigation of Phantom Limb Pain (PLP)

Abstract

Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a complex medical condition that is often difficult to treat, and thus can become detrimental to patients’ quality of life. No standardized clinical treatments exist and there is no conclusive understanding of the underlying mechanisms causing it. Noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has been used to find correlations between changes in brain activity and various brain conditions, including neurological disease, mental illnesses, and brain disorders. Studies have also shown that NIBS can be effective in alleviating pain. Here, we examined the literature on a particular type of NIBS, known as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and its application to the treatment of PLP. We first discuss the current hypotheses on the working mechanism of tDCS and then we examine published evidence of its efficacy to treat PLP. We conclude this article by discussing how tDCS alone, and in combination with brain imaging techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetic resonance imagining, could be applied to further investigate the mechanisms underlying PLP.

Applications of open-source software ROAST in clinical studies: A review

“…In addition, many studies run the models on the example head included with ROAST or an individual sample from the investigators. These work cover various clinical applications including: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder [ 61 , 62 ], aging [ 63 ], associative memory [ 64 , 65 ], attention [ 66 – 68 ], body awareness [ 69 ], cognitive control and function [ 70 ]; Fusco et al [ 125 ]; [ 71 , 72 ], connectivity [ 73 ], decision making [ 74 – 77 ]; Schulreich and Schwabe [ 126 ], declarative learning [ 78 ], depressive disorder [ 79 ], electroencephalography (EEG) research [ 80 – 83 ], imitation [ 84 ], memory retrieval [ 85 – 87 ], mind wandering [ 88 , 89 ], motor learning [ 90 – 95 ], motor skills [ 96 – 98 ], neurorehabilitation [ 60 ], neurovascular coupling [ 99 ], obsessive-compulsive disorder [ 100 ], phantom limb pain [ 101 ], post-anoxic leukoencephalopathy [ 102 ], reading speed [ 103 ], schizophrenia [ 104 ], social anxiety disorder [ 105 ], stroke [ 106 ], visual perception [ 107 , 108 ], and working memory [ 109 – 115 ].…”

Time since onset might be of essence: A recommendation to assess the effects of combination of non-pharmacological neuromodulatory approaches at early stage since symptoms onset

“…Although the past 20 years have seen much research on the effects of tDCS on both the brain and pain (7), the accumulated results of the early investigations highlighted only modest and short-term analgesic effects. More recently, researchers hypothesized that combining tDCS with another neuromodulatory treatment could enhance analgesic effects (7)(8)(9)(10)(11).…”

Performance in myoelectric pattern recognition improves with transcranial direct current stimulation

“…A meta-analysis by Bai et al, concluded that tDCS is effective for stroke recovery of patients with motor dysfunction 27 . Furthermore tDCS has been used in the rehabilitation of several additional neurological disorders such as depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia 24 , 25 , 28 , as well as for the relief of PLP 29 .…”

“…We undertake research in the field of prosthetic limbs 5 , 6 , rehabilitation of PLP 14 , 29 , and stroke 32 which would all benefit from validating the efficacy of tDCS to improve MPR. Here, we evaluated the hypothesis that tDCS improves MPR in the non-dominant hand of able-bodied individuals in a cross-over, sham-controlled study.…”