Search results for "Nociceptor"
showing 10 items of 50 documents
Different generators in human temporal-parasylvian cortex account for subdural laser-evoked potentials, auditory-evoked potentials, and event-related…
2000
In order to localize cortical areas mediating pain we now report subdural cortical potentials evoked by auditory stimulation (auditory-evoked potentials - AEPs) and by cutaneous stimulation with a laser (laser-evoked potentials - LEPs). Stimulation with the laser evokes a pure pain sensation by selective activation of nociceptors. LEPs were maximal over the inferior aspect of the central sulcus and had the same polarity on either side of the sylvian fissure. AEPs were maximal posterior to the LEP maximum and had opposite polarity on opposite sides of the sylvian fissure, consistent with the location of a known generator in the temporal operculum. Auditory P3 (event-related) potentials were …
Secondary tactile hypoesthesia: a novel type of pain-induced somatosensory plasticity in human subjects
2004
Quantitative sensory testing revealed that pain induced by intracutaneous capsaicin injection elicited secondary hyperalgesia coexisting with secondary tactile hypoesthesia. Mapping the areas of altered mechanical sensations adjacent to the capsaicin injection disclosed that the area of secondary hyperalgesia was always nested in a larger area of secondary hypoesthesia easily detected as numbness by most subjects. Psychometric functions revealed a twofold rightward shift of tactile detection (hypoesthesia), which coexisted with a more than fourfold leftward shift of pricking pain detection (hyperalgesia) in the same skin area. As a mechanism we propose a functional switch at the spinal leve…
Heat-evoked vasodilatation in human hairy skin: axon reflexes due to low-level activity of nociceptive afferents.
1996
1. Spreading vasodilatation of the axon reflex type was evoked by contact heat stimulation of the hairy skin in the human forearm (13.3 cm2 stimulus area) and was detected by laser Doppler flowmetry at 8, 19 and 30 mm distance. 2. From a base temperature of 35 degrees C, rapidly rising short heat stimuli (4 degrees C s-1, 2 s plateau) elicited vasodilatation at an average threshold of 39.4 degrees C. For slowly rising sustained heat stimuli (64 s duration) the average threshold was 39.6 degrees C (n.s.) Laser Doppler flowmetry revealed a rapid onset within about 4 s, a long duration of several minutes beyond the end of the stimulus, and a rapid spread of vasodilatation to remote skin areas.…
High opiate receptor binding potential in the human lateral pain system
2005
To determine how opiate receptor distribution is co-localized with the distribution of nociceptive areas in the human brain, eleven male healthy volunteers underwent one PET scan with the subtype-nonselective opioidergic radioligand [(18)F]fluoroethyl-diprenorphine under resting conditions. The binding potential (BP), a parameter for the regional cerebral opioid receptor availability, was computed using the occipital cortex as reference region. The following regions of interest (ROIs) were defined on individual MR images: thalamus, sensory motor strip (SI/MI area), frontal operculum, parietal operculum, anterior insular cortex, posterior insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC; peri-…
Withdrawal reflex organisation to electrical stimulation of the dorsal foot in humans.
2001
The present study investigated excitatory reflex receptive fields for various muscle reflex responses and reflex mediated ankle joint movements using randomised electrical stimulation of the dorsal and plantar surface of the foot in 12 healthy subjects. Eleven electrodes (0.5-cm2 cathodes) were mounted on the dorsal side and three on the plantar side of the foot. A low (1.5 times pain threshold) and a high (2.3 times pain threshold) stimulus intensity were used to elicit the reflexes. EMG signals were recorded from tibialis anterior (TA), gastrocnemius medialis (GM), soleus (SO), biceps femoris (BF), and rectus femoris (RF) muscles together with the ankle movement measured by a goniometer. …
Pulpal ischemia in man: effects on detection threshold, A-delta neural response and sharp dental pain
1999
— Preferential blocks of peripheral nerves have shown that myelinated nerves are more susceptible to local compression and less resistent to asphyxia than unmyelinated fibers. Since two groups of functionally different nociceptors exist in the dental pulp, it is of theoretical and clinical interest to determine the influence of ischemia on the sensitivity of human dental pulp, using standard means for testing tooth vitality and at the same time investigating the intensity coding in one pathway of the afferent trigeminal system. Adrenaline was used to study the differential effect of adrenaline-induced ischemia on intradental A-delta nerve activity (INA) and the concomitant sharp pain, as we…
C- and Aδ-fiber components of heat-evoked cerebral potentials in healthy human subjects
1999
Feedback-controlled laser heat was used to stimulate the hairy skin of the hand dorsum and forearm, and heat-evoked cerebral potentials were recorded at midline (Fz, Cz, Pz) and temporal (T3, T4) scalp positions. Based on data from primary afferent electrophysiology a stimulus level (40 degrees C) was chosen, which is above C-fiber heat threshold, but clearly below A delta-nociceptor heat threshold in order to excite selectively C-fibers without concomitant excitation of A delta-fibers. Feedback-controlled stepped heat stimuli to 40 degrees C elicited ultralate laser evoked potentials (LEPs) at the vertex in a high proportion of experiments (90%). Estimates of conduction velocity calculated…
Roles of capsaicin-insensitive nociceptors in cutaneous pain and secondary hyperalgesia.
2001
Polymodal nociceptors respond to mechanical, thermal and chemical stimuli. Whereas sensitivities to heat and to the irritant substance capsaicin have recently been linked via the properties of the vanilloid receptor type 1 receptor ion channel, sensitivity to noxious mechanical stimuli such as the pinpricks used in clinical neurology seems to be unrelated. We investigated the peripheral neural basis of pinprick pain using quantitative psychophysical techniques combined with selective conduction block by nerve compression and selective desensitization by topical capsaicin treatment. Complete A-fibre block by compression of the superficial radial nerve (criterion: loss of first pain sensation…
Inward currents in primary nociceptive neurons of the rat and pain sensations in humans elicited by infrared diode laser pulses
2002
Radiant heat is often used to study nociception in vivo. We now used infrared radiation generated by a diode laser stimulator (wavelength 980 nm) to investigate transduction mechanisms for noxious heat stimuli in acutely dissociated dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons of rats in vitro. The laser stimulator offered the unique opportunity to test whether the same stimuli also elicit pain sensations in humans. A specific heat-induced current (I(heat)) was elicited in six of 13 small DRG neurons (diameteror =30 microm) tested in the whole-cell configuration of the patch-clamp mode. Current responses in the seven heat-insensitive neurons were within the range explainable by the temperature depend…
Convergence of nociceptive and non-nociceptive input onto the medullary dorsal horn in man
1998
Referred pain arising in orofacial pain states is probably due to convergence of different somatosensory input onto the medullary dorsal horn (MDH). To examine convergence between nociceptive and non-nociceptive input onto the MDH, the blink reflex (BR) was applied. R1- and R2-components can be evoked by innocuous stimuli, but only the R2 is elicited by painful heat. The BR was elicited by innocuous electrical stimuli applied to the supraorbital nerve. A conditioning painful heat pulse which did not evoke any BR was homotopically applied to the left forehead preceding the electrical stimulus by 75 ms. While R1 remained unchanged, the R2 was facilitated by about 30%. This study demonstrates …