• Vanessa D Hohn, Elisabeth S May, and Markus Ploner.
• Department of Neurology and TUM-Neuroimaging Center, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
• Pain Rep. 2019 Jul 1; 4 (4): e723.

IntroductionAccumulating evidence suggests that neural oscillations at different frequencies and their synchrony between brain regions play a crucial role in the processing of nociceptive input and the emergence of pain. Most findings are limited by their correlative nature, however, which impedes causal inferences.ObjectiveTo move from correlative towards causal evidence, methods that allow to experimentally manipulate oscillatory brain activity are needed.ResultsTranscranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique designed to modulate neural oscillations in a frequency specific manner and as such a suitable method to investigate the contribution of oscillatory brain activity to pain. Despite its appeal, tACS has been barely applied in the field of pain research. In the present review, we address this issue and discuss how tACS can be used to gather mechanistic evidence for the relationship between pain and neural oscillations in humans.ConclusionsTranscranial alternating current stimulation holds great potential for the investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying pain and the development of new treatment approaches for chronic pain if necessary methodological precautions are taken.Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of The International Association for the Study of Pain.

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