Validation of Optimization Methods for Sensory Characteristics Using Rate-All-That-Apply and Intensity Scales: A Case Study of Apple Juice.

Preference mapping (PM), which integrates consumer and descriptive analysis (DA) data to identify attributes that drive consumer liking, is widely employed for product optimization. However, a limited group of trained panelists cannot fully represent the diverse consumer population or reliably predict market acceptance. Consequently, numerous studies have explored consumer-based methodologies as potential replacements for DA; however, their efficacy for product optimization remains limited.

Online consumer testing beyond central location tests: A case study for brewed coffee.

Due to the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, conducting sensory evaluations requiring direct interactions became challenging. In response, researchers have been motivated to devise non-face-to-face testing methods as alternatives. This study aimed to compare two non-face-to-face home-use tests (HUT) with the traditional face-to-face central location test (CLT).

Effects of Simulated Airplane Cabin Noise on In-Flight Meal Perception in the Brain Using Electroencephalography.

Auditory distractions can impair the sensory evaluation of food; however, the specific impact of airplane cabin noise on the sensory perception of in-flight meals remains poorly studied. Here, we investigated the effects of airplane cabin noise on the visual processing of in-flight meal stimuli using electroencephalography (EEG) in twenty healthy male subjects. Resting-state EEG and event-related potential (ERP) responses to in-flight meal images were acquired during quiet and simulated cabin noise conditions.

High-definition tDCS over primary motor cortex modulates brain signal variability and functional connectivity in episodic migraine.

Objective: This study investigated how high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the primary motor cortex (M1) affects brain signal variability and functional connectivity in the trigeminal pain pathway, and their association with changes in migraine attacks.

Methods: Twenty-five episodic migraine patients were randomized for ten daily sessions of active or sham M1 HD-tDCS. Resting-state blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signal variability and seed-based functional connectivity were assessed pre- and post-treatment.

Exploring HD-tDCS Effect on μ-opioid Receptor and Pain Sensitivity in Temporomandibular Disorder: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial Study.

This study explored the association between experimentally-induced pain sensitivity and µ-opioid receptor (μOR) availability in patients with temporomandibular disorder (TMD) and further investigated any changes in the pain and μOR availability following high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the primary motor cortex (M1) with pilot randomized clinical trials. Seven patients with TMD completed either active (n = 3) or sham treatment (n = 4) for 10 daily sessions and underwent positron emission tomography (PET) scans with [C]carfentanil, a selective μOR agonist, a week before and after treatment. PET imaging consisted of an early resting and late phase with the sustained masseteric pain challenge by computer-controlled injection of 5% hypertonic saline.

Effect of High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Headache Severity and Central µ-Opioid Receptor Availability in Episodic Migraine.

Objective: The current understanding of utilizing HD-tDCS as a targeted approach to improve headache attacks and modulate endogenous opioid systems in episodic migraine is relatively limited. This study aimed to determine whether high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the primary motor cortex (M1) can improve clinical outcomes and endogenous µ-opioid receptor (µOR) availability for episodic migraineurs.

Methods: In a randomized, double-blind, and sham-controlled trial, 25 patients completed 10-daily 20-min M1 HD-tDCS, repeated Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans with a selective agonist for µOR.

Classifying migraine using PET compressive big data analytics of brain's -opioid and D2/D3 dopamine neurotransmission.

Migraine is a common and debilitating pain disorder associated with dysfunction of the central nervous system. Advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have reported relevant pathophysiologic states in migraine. However, its molecular mechanistic processes are still poorly understood .

Management of Episodic Migraine with Neuromodulation: A Case Report.

Migraine is a highly prevalent neurovascular disorder that affects approximately 15% of the global population. Migraine attacks are a complex cascade of neurologic events that lead to debilitating symptoms and are often associated with inhibitory behavior. The constellation of severe signs and symptoms during the ictal phase (headache attack) makes migraine the third most common cause of disability globally in both sexes under the age of 50.

Structural and functional thalamocortical connectivity study in female fibromyalgia.

Dysfunctional thalamocortical interactions have been suggested as putative mechanisms of ineffective pain modulation and also suggested as possible pathophysiology of fibromyalgia (FM). However, it remains unclear which specific thalamocortical networks are altered and whether it is related to abnormal pain perception in people with FM. Here, we conducted combined vertex-wise subcortical shape, cortical thickness, structural covariance, and resting-state functional connectivity analyses to address these questions.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Signal Variability Is Associated With Neuromodulation in Fibromyalgia.

Objectives: Although primary motor cortex (M1) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has an analgesic effect in fibromyalgia (FM), its neural mechanism remains elusive. We investigated whether M1-tDCS modulates a regional temporal variability of blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signals, an indicator of the brain's flexibility and efficiency and if this change is associated with pain improvement.

Materials And Methods: In a within-subjects cross-over design, 12 female FM patients underwent sham and active tDCS on five consecutive days, respectively.

Dopaminergic Regulation of Reward System Connectivity Underpins Pain and Emotional Suffering in Migraine.

Purpose: It has been suggested that reward system dysfunction may account for emotion and pain suffering in migraine. However, there is a lack of evidence whether the altered reward system connectivity is directly associated with clinical manifestations, including negative affect and ictal pain severity and, at the molecular level, the dopamine (DA) D2/D3 receptors (D2/3Rs) signaling implicated in encoding motivational and emotional cues.

Patients And Methods: We acquired resting-state functional MRI from interictal episodic migraine (EM) patients and age-matched healthy controls, as well as positron emission tomography (PET) with [C]raclopride, a selective radiotracer for DA D2/3Rs, from a subset of these participants.

Differential alteration of fMRI signal variability in the ascending trigeminal somatosensory and pain modulatory pathways in migraine.

Background: The moment-to-moment variability of resting-state brain activity has been suggested to play an active role in chronic pain. Here, we investigated the regional blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal variability (BOLD) and inter-regional dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) in the interictal phase of migraine and its relationship with the attack severity.

Methods: We acquired resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging from 20 migraine patients and 26 healthy controls (HC).

Threat Prediction from Schemas as a Source of Bias in Pain Perception.

Our sensory impressions of pain are generally thought to represent the noxious properties of an agent but can be influenced by the predicted level of threat. Predictions can be sourced from higher-order cognitive processes, such as schemas, but the extent to which schemas can influence pain perception relative to bottom-up sensory inputs and the underlying neural underpinnings of such a phenomenon are unclear. Here, we investigate how threat predictions generated from learning a cognitive schema lead to inaccurate sensory impressions of the pain stimulus.

Disrupted Resting State Network of Fibromyalgia in Theta frequency.

Fibromyalgia (FM), chronic widespread pain, exhibits spontaneous pain without external stimuli and is associated with altered brain activities during resting state. To understand the topological features of brain network in FM, we employed persistent homology which is a multiple scale network modeling framework not requiring thresholding. Spontaneous magnetoencephalography (MEG) activity was recorded in 19 healthy controls (HCs) and 18 FM patients.

Increased Low- and High-Frequency Oscillatory Activity in the Prefrontal Cortex of Fibromyalgia Patients.

Recent human neuroimaging studies have suggested that fibromyalgia (FM), a chronic widespread pain disorder, exhibits altered thalamic structure and function. Since the thalamus has extensive reciprocal connection with the cortex, structural and functional thalamic alterations in FM might be linked to aberrant thalamocortical oscillation. This study investigated the presence of abnormal brain rhythmicity in low- and high-frequency bands during resting state in patients with FM and their relationship to clinical pain symptom.

Augmented Pain Processing in Primary and Secondary Somatosensory Cortex in Fibromyalgia: A Magnetoencephalography Study Using Intra-Epidermal Electrical Stimulation.

The aim of this study was to investigate augmented pain processing in the cortical somatosensory system in patients with fibromyalgia (FM). Cortical evoked responses were recorded in FM (n = 19) and healthy subjects (n = 21) using magnetoencephalography after noxious intra-epidermal electrical stimulation (IES) of the hand dorsum (pain rating 6 on a numeric rating scale, perceptually-equivalent). In addition, healthy subjects were stimulated using the amplitude corresponding to the average stimulus intensity rated 6 in patients with FM (intensity-equivalent).

Disinhibition of the primary somatosensory cortex in patients with fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic widespread pain condition linked to central sensitization. Altered excitability of sensorimotor cortex has been proposed as an underlying pathology of FM. This study aimed to investigate intracortical excitability of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and its potential role in clinical pain in patients with FM.

Impaired pre-attentive auditory processing in fibromyalgia: A mismatch negativity (MMN) study.

Objective: Fibromyalgia (FM) patients often show deficits in cognitive functions such as attention and working memory. We assumed that pre-attentive information processing, a crucial element in human perception and cognition, would be altered in FM patients. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine whether FM patients exhibit alterations in pre-attentive processing as assessed by auditory mismatch negativity (MMN).

Altered white matter integrity in the corpus callosum in fibromyalgia patients identified by tract-based spatial statistical analysis.

Objective: Although recent imaging studies of fibromyalgia (FM) have converged on a dysfunction of central pain processing as the primary pathophysiologic cause of the disorder, microstructural changes of the white matter (WM) suggestive of abnormalities in the anatomic connectivity of the brain have not been extensively examined. The aim of this study was to investigate WM integrity and its possible relationship to pain symptoms in women with FM.

Methods: Nineteen FM patients and 21 age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy control subjects were included in the study and underwent diffusion-weighted imaging.

Ascending beta oscillation from finger muscle to sensorimotor cortex contributes to enhanced steady-state isometric contraction in humans.

Objective: β-Band corticomuscular coherence is suggested as an electrophysiological mechanism that contributes to sensorimotor functioning in the maintenance of steady-state contractions. Converging evidence suggests that not only the descending corticospinal pathway but the ascending sensory feedback pathway is involved in the generation of β-band corticomuscular coherence. The present study aimed to investigate which pathway, descending vs.

Modulation of somatosensory evoked magnetic fields by intensity of interfering stimuli in human somatosensory cortex: an MEG study.

Somatosensory evoked responses are known to be modulated by previous interfering stimuli. Here, we first investigated the modulatory effects of interfering stimuli with different intensities on somatosensory evoked magnetic field in human primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory cortices. In the control condition of the study, test stimulus, set to strong intensity, was delivered to the left median nerve.

Oscillatory interaction between the hand area of human primary motor cortex and finger muscles during steady-state isometric contraction.

Objective: To compare the magnitudes of β-band coherence between the primary motor cortex (M1) and electromyogram (EMG) for finger muscles, and to determine whether M1-EMG coherence is related to the stability of muscle contraction.

Methods: Cortical signals and EMG during steady-state isometric contraction of right thumb muscle (flexor pollicis brevis (FPB)) or right little finger muscle (flexor digiti minimi brevis (FDMB)) were recorded simultaneously with magnetoencephalography system from 13 right-handed healthy subjects.

Results: The magnitudes of β-band M1-EMG coherence and spectral power in the M1 for the FPB muscle were greater than that for the FDMB muscle (P < 0.