Electrophysiologic markers of altered interoceptive processing in Chronic Back Pain Patients undergoing Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA)

Chloe S. Zimmerman, Nova Chen, Elizabeth Kaplan, Alexios Carayannopoulos, Stephanie R. Jones, Frederike H. Petzschner

Introduction:

Hypothesis: Suppressed neural monitoring of heartbeats in RFA patients at baseline will predict non-response to RFA

Methods: Prospective Observational Cohort Study:

•EEG-recorded  Heartbeat Attention Task (HBATT Task) to quantify the interoceptive Heartbeat Evoked Potential (HEP)

•SOMA Pain Manager App, developed in Petzschner lab at Brown, uses Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) for daily assessment of pain

Results:

Discussion and Future Directions:

In our ongoing study we will analyze whether RFA patients show diminished interoception on both EEG HEP assessments and self report questionnaires. This would indicate diminished central monitoring of bodily signals that could be associated with non-response to RFA. Use of the SOMA app to track pain dynamics pre- and post- RFA allows novel approaches to treatment outcome prediction by enabling assessment of intra-individual and intra-day variability in pain dynamics