Mechanistic Study of Personalized rTMS in Chronic Pain

Overview

Previous research has demonstrated that repetitive magnetic brain stimulation can be an effective adjunctive treatment for several conditions, including chronic pain. However, current stimulation protocols are typically standardized and do not account for individual variability in brain function. This uniform, one-size-fits-all approach results in only about 40% of patients experiencing meaningful clinical benefit, while the remainder show little to no improvement. To address this limitation, the present study will investigate how magnetic stimulation can be tailored to individuals with chronic pain. By analyzing each participant's brain signals prior to treatment, we aim to personalize stimulation parameters to better match individual neural characteristics and potentially enhance therapeutic outcomes. The design of this study builds directly on the findings of a previous clinical trial.

This study builds directly on previous clinical findings identifying four cortical targets-primary motor cortex (M1), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the posterior insula (PSI)-as exhibiting neurophysiological properties potentially useful for guiding individualized repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) target selection. Earlier results demonstrated that chronic pain patients with low alpha-band intertrial coherence (ITC) over M1 were more likely to respond to stimulation of M1, whereas patients with high alpha-band ITC showed a greater likelihood of responding to stimulation of PSI, ACC or DLPFC. These findings suggest that specific electroencephalography (EEG) connectivity markers may help predict the cortical target most likely to provide therapeutic benefit for an individual patient. Building on this evidence, the present trial will classify participants according to their pre-treatment transcranial magnetic stimulation-electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) connectivity profiles and assign treatment to the cortical region with the highest predicted probability of clinical response. A total of 90 patients with chronic pain will be enrolled in a double-blind, randomized, two-parallel-arm clinical trial comparing the analgesic effects of individualized target selection with those of the standard rTMS protocol. Participants will be randomized 1:1 to: * Individualized targeting, in which the rTMS site is selected based on each participant's TMS-EEG connectivity profile * Standard stimulation, representing the conventional rTMS approach for pain relief. At baseline, participants will complete standardized questionnaires and undergo neurophysiological assessments, including single-pulse TMS-EEG for target classification. The induction phase will then begin, consisting of five consecutive daily rTMS sessions delivered Monday through Friday. Each session lasts 30 minutes, including 15 minutes of active stimulation. The induction phase will be followed by a 7-week maintenance phase, during which participants receive one rTMS session per week (seven sessions in total). At the end of the maintenance phase, all outcome measures will be reassessed to evaluate treatment efficacy.