时域干涉刺激在慢性疼痛管理中的潜力与挑战
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1)中国科学院心理研究所认知科学与心理健康全国重点实验室,北京 100101;2)首都师范大学心理学院,北京市“学习与认知”重点实验室,北京 100048;3)中国科学院大学心理学系,北京 100049

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国家自然科学基金(32171077),北京市自然科学基金(JQ22018)和中国科学院青年创新促进会人才专项(2022084)资助。


The Potential and Challenges of Temporal Interference Stimulation in Chronic Pain Management
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Affiliation:

1)State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;2)Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;3)Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

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This work was supported by grants from The National Natural Science Foundation of China (32171077), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (JQ22018), and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2022084).

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    摘要:

    慢性疼痛是一种复杂的生理和心理状态,其发生与深层脑区的可塑性重塑以及多系统功能紊乱密切相关。长期依赖药物镇痛不仅疗效有限,还可能带来显著副作用,因此亟须研发安全有效的非药物镇痛策略。神经调控技术通过物理或化学手段调节神经通路活动,为慢性疼痛干预提供了新思路。在现有神经调控体系中,侵入性的深部脑刺激虽可直接作用于深部靶点,但因手术创伤和成本较高等因素应用受限,而现有非侵入式技术又存在刺激深度有限、空间定位不准等局限,难以精准作用于与疼痛密切相关的深部脑区。时域干涉(temporal interference,TI)刺激技术通过高频电流在体内的干涉作用形成低频调制电场,可实现对深层靶点的无创聚焦刺激,在很大程度上突破了传统神经调控技术在深部脑刺激中的局限。本文综述了慢性疼痛的神经机制及其关键脑区的功能异常,系统阐释了时域干涉这一新型神经调控技术的工作原理及其相较现有技术的优势,重点讨论了针对慢性疼痛潜在干预靶点的选择依据,并介绍了TI技术在安全性、耐受性和个体化参数优化方面的研究进展。TI具备非侵入、舒适可耐受及精准调控深部脑区的独特优势,在慢性难治性疼痛管理中展现出巨大潜力,未来有望发展为新一代精准高效的非药物镇痛策略。

    Abstract:

    Chronic pain is a complex condition shaped by long-standing alterations in both physiological and psychological processes. Rather than representing a simple continuation of acute nociceptive signaling, chronic pain is increasingly understood as the outcome of progressive dysregulation within distributed neural systems that govern sensation, affect, motivation, and cognitive control. Neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies indicate that this state is accompanied by extensive plastic changes in deep brain structures and large-scale networks. Beyond well-described central sensitization processes, chronic pain is characterized by disrupted oscillatory rhythms and altered connectivity within large-scale brain networks, including thalamo-cortical circuits and prefrontal-limbic-reward networks. These findings support a conceptual shift from viewing chronic pain as a focal, lesion-driven phenomenon toward recognizing it as a disorder of distributed network pathology. Pharmacological treatments remain central to clinical practice, yet their long-term efficacy is often limited and frequently accompanied by substantial side effects. The ongoing concerns about opioid-related risks and the inadequate therapeutic response in a subset of patients highlight the need for safe, non-pharmacological approaches that can address not only pain but also comorbid disturbances in mood, sleep, and social functioning. Neuromodulation provides a promising path toward mechanism-based and non-pharmacological management of chronic pain by employing physical or chemical stimulation to alter the excitability and synchrony of specific neural populations within central, peripheral, and autonomic systems. While invasive deep brain stimulation demonstrates that targeting deep brain structures can be effective, its clinical application is restricted by surgical risks and cost, highlighting the importance of non-invasive techniques capable of reaching deep targets. Current non-invasive approaches, such as transcranial electric stimulation, are constrained by limited penetration depth and insufficient spatial precision. These limitations hinder reliable engagement of deep regions implicated in pain, including the thalamus and nucleus accumbens, and tend to produce broad, non-specific modulation of cross-network oscillatory activity. Temporal interference (TI) stimulation has emerged as a means of overcoming these obstacles. By delivering interacting high-frequency currents that generate a low-frequency envelope within the head, TI enables focal stimulation of deep targets while minimizing superficial current delivery. Recent multiscale modeling and animal studies indicate that TI exploits the nonlinear rectification properties of neuronal membranes in response to high-frequency carriers, as well as their phase-locked responses to low-frequency envelopes, to generate “peak-focused” electric fields in deep regions under relatively low superficial current loads. Moreover, TI appears to exhibit potential advantages in terms of cell-type selectivity and rhythm-specific engagement, including differential responses across neuronal subtypes and distinct coupling to θ-, β-, and γ-band oscillations. These features suggest a promising avenue for correcting abnormal rhythms and network dynamics that contribute to chronic pain. This review summarizes current knowledge of the neural mechanisms underlying chronic pain and recent advances in TI research. It examines functional disturbances across key pain-related regions and networks, outlines the principles and technical characteristics of TI, and discusses potential deep-brain targets and stimulation strategies relevant to chronic pain. Evidence to date indicates that TI, with its non-invasiveness, tolerability, and capacity for precise deep brain modulation, holds great promise for the management of treatment-resistant chronic pain and may evolve into a new generation of precise and efficient non-pharmacological analgesic strategies.

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段昊青,苟钰琦,李雅雯,胡理,吕雪靖.时域干涉刺激在慢性疼痛管理中的潜力与挑战[J].生物化学与生物物理进展,2026,53(2):369-387 DUAN Hao-Qing, GOU Yu-Qi, LI Ya-Wen, HU Li, Lü Xue-Jing. The Potential and Challenges of Temporal Interference Stimulation in Chronic Pain Management[J]. Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics,2026,53(2):369-387

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  • 收稿日期:2025-09-10
  • 最后修改日期:2026-01-25
  • 录用日期:2025-12-29
  • 在线发布日期: 2025-12-29
  • 出版日期: 2026-02-28
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