Effect of low-thoracic anodal tsDCS on PREP-induced pain intensity
pain
We observed a general increase of the subjective pain intensity caused by the cutaneous electrical stimuli using CE when eliciting PREP (evaluated by NRS) after anodal tsDCS compared to sham stimulation. However, this could not be shown separately for stimuli of the lower limb, so that we cannot recognize a connection to a local modulation of the low-thoracic tsDCS. Regarding the absolute values, the effect on PREP-induced pain intensity is very small, with an average difference between anodal and sham stimulation of fewer than 5 points on a NRS ranging from 0 to 100. While the results could be interpreted as a general sensitization to electrical stimuli by CE after anodal tsDCS, it should be noticed that this effect was generally weak and the absolute changes were very small. Descriptively, the effect seems to be somewhat stronger for the lower limb than for the upper limb (see Table value after tsDCS minus value before tsDCS (for all dependent variables).