"Using electroencephalography (EEG) as a noninvasive approach, the assessment of ongoing pain has become feasible and effortless", appeared from the report published in the journal Human Brain Mapping. Chronic pain marked with ongoing pain and diverse range of cognitive, affective and sensory abnormalities affects approximately 20% to 30% of the population. The management of this  health trouble is somewhat difficult due to the lack of knowledge regarding its neural mechanisms.

For the purpose of assessing, a total of 31 chronic back pain cases were selected and asked to rate the ongoing pain while also recording EEG concurrently. According to the reports of time-frequency analysis, ongoing pain intensity and prefronal beta as well as gamma oscillations exhibited a positive relationship, whereas, alpha/beta oscillation showed no associations. All these outcomes markedly showed that neuronal oscillations involved in subjective perception rather than objective nociceptive input exhibit ongoing pain as a major manifestation of chronic pain. Therefore, the dissociation of pain intensity in chronic back pain cases from nociceptive processing is supported. However, the study proposed that investigation of the role of prefrontal gamma activity as an indicator of ongoing pain in prognosis and management of chronic pain should be conducted in future.