Memories of painful events constitute the basis for assessing patients' pain. This study explores the brain oscillatory activity during short‐term memorization of a nociceptive stimulus. High‐density EEG activity (128 electrodes) was recorded in 13 healthy subjects during a match‐to‐sample sensory discrimination task, whereby participants compared the intensity of a thumb‐located electric shock (S2) with a prior stimulus to the same location (S1) delivered 8–10 s earlier. Stimuli were above or below the individual nociceptive threshold. EEG activity with intracortical source localization via LORETA source reconstruction was analysed during the inter‐stimuli period and contrasted with a non‐memory‐related control task.The inter‐stimulus memorization phase was characterized by a focal alpha‐activity enhancement, significant during the nociceptive condition only, which progressed from bilateral occipital regions (cuneus and mid‐occipital gyri) during the first encoding—memorization phase towards the right‐superior and right mid‐temporal gyri during the 2–4 s immediately preceding S2. Initial alpha enhancement in occipital areas/cuneus is consistent with rapid non‐specific inhibition of task‐irrelevant visual processing during initial stimulus encoding. Its transfer to the right‐temporal regions was concomitant to the temporary upholding of the stimulus perceptual representation, previous to receiving S2, and suggests an active and local blockade of external interferences while these regions actively maintain internal information. These results add to a growing field indicating that alpha oscillations, while indicating local inhibitory processes, can also indirectly reveal active stimulus handling, including maintenance in short‐term memory buffers, by objectivizing the filtering out of irrelevant and potentially disrupting inputs in brain regions engaged in internally driven operations.

中文翻译：

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疼痛短期记忆过程中α振荡的焦点变化：具有源定位的高密度脑电图研究

对痛苦事件的记忆构成了评估患者疼痛的基础。这项研究探讨了伤害性刺激的短期记忆过程中的大脑振荡活动。在匹配样本的感觉辨别任务中，记录了 13 名健康受试者的高密度脑电图活动（128 个电极），参与者将拇指位置电击 (S2) 的强度与先前对同一位置的刺激进行比较（ S1) 提前 8-10 秒交付。刺激高于或低于个体伤害性阈值。在刺激间期分析通过 LORETA 源重建进行皮质内源定位的脑电图活动，并与非记忆相关的控制任务进行对比。刺激间记忆阶段的特点是局灶性 α 活动增强，在伤害感受期间显着。仅在条件下，在第一个编码记忆阶段，在 S2 之前的 2-4 秒内，从双侧枕叶区域（楔叶和枕中回）发展到右上回和右颞中回。枕骨区域/楔骨的初始α增强与初始刺激编码期间任务无关视觉处理的快速非特异性抑制一致。它转移到右颞区是伴随着在接收 S2 之前暂时维持刺激感知表征的，这表明在这些区域积极维护内部信息的同时，对外部干扰进行积极和局部的封锁。这些结果增加了一个不断发展的领域，表明α振荡在指示局部抑制过程的同时，还可以通过客观化过滤掉参与的大脑区域中不相关和可能干扰的输入，间接揭示主动刺激处理，包括短期记忆缓冲区的维护在内部驱动的操作中。