Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology
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Recently, deep brain stimulation (DBS) is widely used in various types of neurodegenerative disorders for minimal invasiveness and safety of the procedure. Deep brain stimulation is consistently applied for the treatment of patients with neuropathic pain even though the success rate is not as high as other neurodegenerative disorders. Furthermore, it is also unclear how DBS improves neuropathic pain. ⋯ The score for mechanical allodynia was significantly decreased in NP + DBS group (p < 0.01). However, the score for cold allodynia did not significantly drop in any groups including NP + DBS group (p > 0.05). In this study, we found that the electrical stimulation of the VPL works more effectively with mechanical allodynia than cold one, and pain signal induced by mechanical stimulus and cold stimulus may be processed through different pathways in the brain.