Hi everyone. I was thinking to do a experiment using EEG to detect the releasing serotonin in the Descending serotonergic pathways during pain modulation, both in facilitating and inhibiting nociceptive inputs.
I was thinking “Human SpikerBox” should be able to accomplish that, but where should I put the Sticker Electrodes?
Any advice will be appreciated 
Hi, great question! Unfortunately, EEG recordings from the scalp cannot directly detect serotonin release or the activity of specific neurotransmitter pathways like the descending serotonergic pathways. EEG measures the summed electrical activity from large populations of neurons near the cortex—not chemical changes or deep brain activity in the brainstem or spinal cord.
Pain-related EEG experiments usually focus on event-related potentials (ERPs) or changes in brain rhythms (like alpha, beta, gamma bands) in response to painful or non-painful stimuli, but these are indirect markers band do not tell you which neurotransmitters are involved.
The Human SpikerBox can record EEG rhythms from the scalp, typically from positions like Fp1, Fp2 (frontal), or C3, C4 (central), but you’ll be measuring general brain responses to pain, not specific serotonin activity. We recently published a peer reviewed paper on how to use the Human Spikerbox to do this. See: https://www.funjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/june-22-197.pdf
If you want to study pain modulation with EEG, you could look for changes in cortical activity during different pain conditions, but just know that this won’t specifically reveal serotonin’s role. To measure serotonin release directly, you’d need invasive methods like microdialysis, which aren’t possible in humans outside of clinical settings.
Hi Gagegreg, glad to hear from you. After reading the paper you recommended, I would love to give it a try. Let me get a set of “Human SpikerBox” from here and try.