Cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation in pain relief: a review article

Background and Aim : The cerebellum has been extensively studied for its potential roles in a wide number of integrative functions, ranging from working memory and associative learning to motor control. It is also involved in the sensory, cognitive and affective dimensions of pain. Nociceptive information is encoded in the cerebellum, it has been proposed that the cerebellum may integrate multiple effector systems including affective processing, pain modulation and sensorimotor control Cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (cerebellar tDCS) is increasingly used in neurophysiology laboratories, and its use begins in clinical research. So the aim of this study was to review the efficacy of Cerebellar transcranial direct currentMethods : Published studies until 2019 were searched on the Google Scholar, Medlib, PubMed, Science Direct and Scopus databases. These keywords were used: Pain cerebellum, cerebellar direct current stimulation, tDCS, and pain modulation. According to our key words and criteria 7 related articles were included to our reviewResults : After anodal cerebellar stimulation the pain threshold was increased. Any significant pain modulation with cathodal or sham stimulation was not seen.Conclusion : In summary the cerebellum engagement in pain processing modulates the activity of both somatosensory and cingulate cortices. Present findings prompt evaluation of the cerebellar direct current polarization as a possible novel and safe therapeutic tool in chronic pain patients. However, anodal stimulation was found to significantly increase the perception of pain, compared to sham and cathodal stimulation.

Keywords:

Pain cerebellum , cerebellar direct current stimulation , tDCS , and pain modulation