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Transcranial magnetic stimulation over contralateral primary somatosensory cortex disrupts perception of itch intensity

Jones, Olivia; Schindler, Igor; Holle, Henning

Authors

Olivia Jones

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Dr Henning Holle H.Holle@hull.ac.uk
Reader in Psychology / Leader of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience group (https://www.hull.ac.uk/neuroscience)



Contributors

Olivia Jones
Researcher

Abstract

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Itch, a complex unpleasant sensation causing the desire to scratch, results from the activity of a network of brain regions. However, the specific functional contributions of individual regions within this network remain poorly understood. We investigated whether contralateral primary and secondary somatosensory cortices (S1, S2) and ipsilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) are critically involved in the cortical processing of acute itch. Continuous theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) was applied to either S1, S2 or IFG, followed by itch induction using a histamine prick. Results indicate a significant reduction in itch intensity when cTBS was applied to S1. Stimulation of S2 or the IFG was not associated with a significant reduction in itch intensity. The novel finding of an antipruritic effect elicited by disruption of activity in contralateral S1 suggests a causal role of S1 in encoding the sensory-discriminative aspect of itch and might be important in future studies on brain interventions for the treatment of itch.

Citation

Jones, O., Schindler, I., & Holle, H. (2019). Transcranial magnetic stimulation over contralateral primary somatosensory cortex disrupts perception of itch intensity. Experimental Dermatology, 28(12), 1380-1384. https://doi.org/10.1111/exd.13803

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 11, 2018
Online Publication Date Dec 21, 2018
Publication Date Dec 1, 2019
Deposit Date Oct 12, 2018
Publicly Available Date Dec 22, 2019
Journal Experimental Dermatology
Print ISSN 0906-6705
Electronic ISSN 1600-0625
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 28
Issue 12
Pages 1380-1384
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/exd.13803
Keywords Antipruritic; Histamine; Pruritus; TMS, somatosensory; Meta-analysis; Cerebral itch response
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/1114710
Publisher URL https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/exd.13803

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