Objectively and accurately assessing pain in clinical settings is challenging. Previous studies showed that alpha oscillations of electroencephalogram data are correlated with subjective perceived pain. Based on this finding, this study is aimed at assessing chronic low back pain based on alpha oscillations. Multichannel electroencephalogram data were recorded from 27 subjects with chronic low back pain under the simple conditions of closing eyes or opening eyes. Spectral analyses were conducted to extract the alpha band responses, and the alpha powers were calculated for the two conditions, respectively. Normalized alpha power was calculated by subtracting the alpha power in the eyes-open condition from that in the eyes-closed condition. The correlation between the alpha power and the subjective pain intensity was evaluated in frontal, central, and posterior regions. The normalized alpha power in the central region was negatively correlated with the subjective pain intensity (, ), with the strongest correlation occurring at the Cz electrode (, ). The correlation analysis results demonstrated the possibility of using the differences of alpha spectral power between eyes-closed and eyes-open conditions as a measure for assessing chronic low back pain. The findings suggest that the normalized alpha power in the central region may be used as a measurable and quantitative indicator of chronic pain for clinical applications.

中文翻译：

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基于自发脑电图 (EEG) 阿尔法振荡变化的腰痛评估

客观和准确地评估临床环境中的疼痛具有挑战性。先前的研究表明，脑电图数据的阿尔法振荡与主观感知疼痛相关。基于这一发现，本研究旨在基于 α 振荡评估慢性腰痛。在闭眼或睁眼的简单条件下，记录了 27 名患有慢性腰痛的受试者的多通道脑电图数据。进行光谱分析以提取 alpha 波段响应，并分别计算两种条件的 alpha 功率。通过从闭眼条件下减去睁眼条件下的 Alpha 功率来计算归一化的 Alpha 功率。α功率与主观疼痛强度之间的相关性在额叶、中央、和后部区域。中心区域的归一化 α 功率与主观疼痛强度呈负相关（, ），最强的相关性发生在 Cz 电极（, ）。相关性分析结果表明，可以使用闭眼和睁眼条件下 alpha 光谱功率的差异作为评估慢性腰痛的指标。研究结果表明，中部区域的归一化 α 功率可用作临床应用中慢性疼痛的可测量和定量指标。