Markus Ploner

New paper in Nature Neuroscience! We developed personalized fMRI-based predictive models tracking ongoing spontaneous pain in chronic pain patients—trained on 6+ months of densely sampled data. A true team effort. Deeply grateful to our participants! doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02221-3

Takeaway:

EEG signals can capture individual differences in pain. But current models remain far from clinically useful prediction of chronic pain intensity.

More personalized, longitudinal approaches may be key for brain-based pain biomarkers.

Exploring Electroencephalography for Chronic Pain Biomarkers: A Large-Scale Benchmark of Data- and Hypothesis-Driven Models Resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) has been proposed as a scalable source of biomarkers for chronic pain, but its clinical potential remains uncertain. To systematically evaluate this potentia...

🧠 Where do we currently stand in the search for EEG biomarkers of chronic pain?

In a new preprint we present the largest benchmark to date of modeling strategies for EEG-based chronic pain biomarkers.

📄 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Linking Data-Driven Symptom Dimensions to Resting-State EEG Biomarker Candidates in Chronic Pain Chronic pain (CP) is a multidimensional condition characterized by physical, emotional, and cognitive symptoms. However, many neuroimaging studies investigating the brain mechanisms of CP have focused...

Quick correction — the correct preprint link is here: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

How can we embrace the complexity of chronic pain and its brain basis? New preprint links data-driven symptom dimensions (affective vs physical burden) to resting-state EEG connectivity, moving beyond pain intensity alone. doi.org/10.64898/202...

How does the brain encode pain variability? New preprint: EEG markers of pain are robust within individuals over time, but unstable between individuals—even with replication. Suggests EEG is better for longitudinal pain tracking. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Thanks for raising this important question. As far as our approach has allowed to assess such effects, we haven’t found any systematic country differences

New paper in EBioMedicine! We analyzed EEG from 614 people with chronic pain across 5 countries. Standard EEG biomarkers didn’t replicate, but network connectivity (esp. theta) shows promise. Open access: tinyurl.com/yc599257

Integrating and interpreting brain maps | doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

Imaging and recording technologies make it possible to map multiple biological features of the brain. How can these features be conceptually integrated into a coherent understanding of brain structure and function? ⤵️

This is a landmark study. Thanks for sharing, congratulations.

Thanks for your positive comment. At the current stage, I consider the study a basic insight rather than something that is clinically useful. However, I think the methods including the multiverse analysis can inspire future studies further exploring biomarker candidates of pain, including PAF.

Thanks for sharing these insights. What do you think about the authors' reply to your comment?

A network correspondence toolbox for quantitative evaluation of novel neuroimaging results - Nature Communications Here, the authors present the Network Correspondence Toolbox, which enables researchers to examine and report spatial correspondence between their neuroimaging results and widely used brain atlases.

It's finally here! Use the Network Correspondence Toolbox to help contextualize your neuroimaging findings 🧠

Assessing the predictive value of peak alpha frequency for... : PAIN eak alpha frequency (PAF) is, thus, discussed as a potential biomarker and novel target for neuromodulatory treatments of pain. Here, we scrutinized the generalizability of the relation between PAF an...

Can brain activity predict pain sensitivity? Our new study tested whether peak alpha frequency (PAF) predicts brief experimental pain in 159 participants. Using preregistered multiverse analyses, we found no consistent evidence for this link. journals.lww.com/pain/fulltex...

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Elio Balestrieri, Joachim Gross, et al:

Beyond oscillations—Toward a richer characterization of brain states

doi.org/10.1162/imag...

International Women’s Day: top universities led by women More than a quarter of the top 200 universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings are run by women, a number which is increasing year on year

Great to see wonderful Irene Tracey on top of the league www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best...

The brain’s action-mode network - Nature Reviews Neuroscience The brain enters an action-mode of function during goal-directed behaviour. In this Perspective, Dosenbach, Raiche and Gordon describe “action-mode” as an informative functional label that reduce...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We offer two PhD positions in Pain Neuroscience and Non-invasive neuromodulation. The positions are at the PainLabMunich (painlabmunich.de) and will be part of the EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network FRESCO4NoPain. See www.cnap.hst.aau.dk/fresco4nopai... for details.

📣 ✨Excited about our latest work in Patterns (Cell Press): GREEN a light-weight #NeuralNetwork with Riemannian Geometry + learnable wavelets for #EEG #biomarkers: doi.org/10.1016/j.pa... Joint work with @jpaillard.bsky.social & Jörg Hipp! Thread 🧵👇🏻👇🏾👇

We share a new publication: "Effects of Centrally Acting Analgesics on Resting-State Electroencephalography Biomarker Candidates of Chronic Pain." The results provide evidence against effects of centrally acting analgesics on EEG biomarker candidates of pain. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

EEG biomarkers of chronic pain? A new paper investigating a novel EEG measure in 149 people with chronic pain. Highest standards of open and reproducible science, including specification curve analysis as a kind of multiverse analysis. doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

We are excited to share our first #RegisteredReport on EEG-based #Neurofeedback for modulating pain, published in @plosbiology.org. We were successful in modulating alpha oscillations but not in modulating pain. dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

EEG biomarkers of chronic pain? A new paper investigating a novel EEG measure in 149 people with chronic pain. Highest standards of open and reproducible science, including specification curve analysis as a kind of multiverse analysis. doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Thanks for the initiative. I would love to join.