Pain measurement by the radiant heat method: individual differences in pain sensitivity, the effects of skin temperature, and stimulus duration.

The present study was done to estimate rise in skin temperature during a pain reaction time (pain RT) as a means of investigating why a pricking pain threshold, produced by thermal stimulation using time method, often increases during repeated measurements. The pain RT, or the time-delay between occurrence of pain sensation and a subsequent motor response, was measured by making EMG recording on a forearm. The radiant heat stimuli were three, 200, 300, and 350 mcal/sec./cm2, each of which was given through a round radiation window of an algesiometer head. Analysis showed that the pain RTs would be too short to explain higher pain thresholds often found using the time method.

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Comparison of responses of warm and nociceptive C-fiber afferents in monkey with human judgments of thermal pain

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1978.41.2.509 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 41 (2) ◽

pp. 509-528 ◽

Cited By ~ 309

Author(s):

R. H. LaMotte ◽

J. N. Campbell

Keyword(s):

Skin Temperature ◽

Conduction Velocity ◽

Mechanical Stimulation ◽

Human Subjects ◽

Radiant Heat ◽

Cumulative Number ◽

Painful Stimulation ◽

C Fibers ◽

Nociceptive Afferents ◽

Stimulus Temperature

1. Radiant-heat stimuli of different intensities were delivered every 28 s to the thenar eminence of the hand of human subjects and to the receptive fields (RFs) of 58 "mechanothermal nociceptive" and 16 "warm" C-fibers, most of which innervated the glabrous skin of the monkey hand. A CO2 infrared laser under control via a radiometer provided a step increase in skin temperature to a level maintained within +/- 0.1 degrees C over a 7.5-mm-diameter spot. 2. Human subjects categorized the magnitude of warmth and pain sensations evoked by stimuli that ranged in temperature from 40 to 50 degrees C. The scale of subjective thermal intensity constructed from these category estimates showed a monotonically increasing relation between stimulus temperature and the magnitude of warmth and pain sensations. 3. The mechanothermal fibers had a mean RF size of 18.9 +/- 3.2 mm2 (SE), a mean conduction velocity of 0.8 +/- 0.1 m/s, mean thresholds of 43.6 +/- 0.6 degrees C for radiant heat and 5.95 +/- 0.59 bars for mechanical stimulation, and no spontaneous activity. In contrast, warm fibers had punctate RFs, a mean conduction velocity of 1.1 +/- 0.1 m/s, heat thresholds of less than 1 degrees C above skin temperature, no response to mechanical stimulation, and a resting level of activity in warm skin that was suppressed by cooling. 4. The cumulative number of impulses evoked during each stimulation in the nociceptive afferents increased monotonically as a function of stimulus temperature over the range described by humans as increasingly painful (45-50 degrees C). Nociceptive fibers showed little or no response to stimulus temperatures less than 45 degrees C that elicited in humans sensations primarily of warmth but not pain. In contrast, the cumulative impulse count during stimulation of each warm fiber increased monotonically with stimulus temperature over the range of 39-43 degrees C. However, for stimuli of 41-49 degrees C the cumulative impulse count in warm fibers was nonmonotonic with stimulus temperature. Warm-fiber response to stimuli of 45 degrees C or greater usually consisted of a short burst of impulses followed by cessation of activity. 5. The subjective magnitude of warmth and pain sensations in humans and the cumulative impulse count evoked by each stimulus in warm and nociceptive afferents varied inversely with the number, delivery rate, and intensity of preceding stimulations. 6. The results of these experiments suggest the following: a) that activity in the mechanothermal nociceptive C-fibers signals the occurrence of pain evoked by radiant heat, and that the frequency of discharge in these fibers may encode the intensity of painful stimulation; b) that activity in warm fibers may encode the intensity of warmth at lower stimulus temperatures, but is unlikely to provide a peripheral mechanism for encoding the intensity of painful stimulation at higher stimulus temperatures.

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Characterizing individual differences in heat-pain sensitivity

Pain ◽

10.1016/j.pain.2005.09.018 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 119 (1-3) ◽

pp. 65-74 ◽

Cited By ~ 58

Author(s):

Christopher S. Nielsen ◽

Donald D. Price ◽

Olav Vassend ◽

Audun Stubhaug ◽

Jennifer R. Harris

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Pain Sensitivity ◽

Heat Pain

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Individual differences and autonomic control: Absorption, hypnotic susceptibility, and the unilateral control of skin temperature.

Journal of Abnormal Psychology ◽

10.1037/h0076655 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 84 (3) ◽

pp. 272-279 ◽

Cited By ~ 55

Author(s):

Alan H. Roberts ◽

Joanne Schuler ◽

Jane G. Bacon ◽

Robert L. Zimmermann ◽

Robert Patterson

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Skin Temperature ◽

Autonomic Control ◽

Hypnotic Susceptibility ◽

Control Absorption ◽

Unilateral Control

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Analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity of Tectona grandis Linn. stem extract

Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology ◽

10.1515/jbcpp-2014-0043 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 26 (5) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sapna P. Giri ◽

Sushilkumar B. Varma

Keyword(s):

Analgesic Activity ◽

Radiant Heat ◽

Inflammatory Activity ◽

Albino Rats ◽

Standard Drug ◽

Writhing Test ◽

Paw Oedema ◽

Stem Extract ◽

Heat Method ◽

Anti Inflammatory

AbstractThe objective of this work was to study the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity ofHealthy albino rats (150–200 g) and mice (25–50 g) were arranged and divided into five groups. Group 1 received distilled water and served as control, groups 2, 3, 4 were treated with TG stem extract (100, 200, 400 mg/kg) and group 5 received standard drug. For analgesic activity, the radiant heat method and writhing test were used, and for anti-inflammatory activity, the paw oedema model and granuloma pouch method were used. Statistical analysis was done by one-way analysis of variance followed by the t-test.In the radiant heat method, there was a dose-dependent increase in reaction time in TG stem extract (100, 200, 400 mg/kg) and standard drug (buprenorphine). In the writhing test, TG stem extract (200, 400 mg/kg) and aspirin decreased the number of writhes which was significant (p<0.01, p<0.001) as compared to controls. The percentage protection was 8.88%, 15.55%, 22.22% and 35.55% in groups 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively. In the rat paw oedema test, TG stem extract (200, 400 mg/kg) and aspirin showed 20%, 40% and 54% inhibition of oedema which was statistically significant (p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001), respectively, as compared to control at the end of 4 h. In the granuloma pouch method, TG stem extract (100, 200, 400 mg/kg) and aspirin showed 13.33%, 22.22%, 33.33% and 66.66% inhibition of granuloma, respectively, which was significant (p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001).TG stem extract possesses significant anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity.

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Individual differences in pain sensitivity: Genetic and environmental contributions

Pain ◽

10.1016/j.pain.2007.06.008 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 136 (1) ◽

pp. 21-29 ◽

Cited By ~ 175

Author(s):

Christopher S. Nielsen ◽

Audun Stubhaug ◽

Donald D. Price ◽

Olav Vassend ◽

Nikolai Czajkowski ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Pain Sensitivity

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Controlling for Individual Differences in a Dual-Task Setting: Equating the Baselines of Single Task Performance

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193120104501304 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 45 (13) ◽

pp. 916-920

Author(s):

Bradley Chase ◽

Holly M. Irwin-Chase ◽

Jaclyn T. Sonico

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Task Performance ◽

Stimulus Duration ◽

Dual Task ◽

Secondary Task ◽

Human Performance ◽

Visual Task ◽

Primary Task ◽

Individual Participant ◽

The Individual

Individual differences in human performance is an issue that confounds many studies and has not been properly controlled in the ergonomics/human factors literature. This paper examines the concept of individual differences in performance primarily from the perspective of cognitive performance. A study was designed to test the effect of a secondary visual task on a primary visual task. In one condition, participants performed the dual task, while assigning no weight to the secondary task. In the second condition, the primary task was performed simultaneously with the secondary task. The effect of the added workload was measured via the effect on primary task performance. In the baseline portion of the task participants had their baseline (80–90% accuracy) of performance collected by adjusting the stimulus duration. The individual participant stimulus duration was then used as the experimental stimulus duration and the effect of secondary task performance on primary task performance was measured.

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SUBCUTANEOUS FAT AND SKIN TEMPERATURE

Canadian Journal of Biochemistry and Physiology ◽

10.1139/o54-038 ◽

1954 ◽

Vol 32 (4) ◽

pp. 354-358 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Jacques LeBlanc

Keyword(s):

Steady State ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Skin Temperature ◽

Subcutaneous Fat ◽

The Body ◽

Regional Variations ◽

The Individual ◽

Thermal Steady State

The subcutaneous fat explains to a large extent the individual differences, as well as the regional variations in the skin temperature, observed on the body. The insulation of the fat layer is 0.41 Clo per inch after one hour's exposure at 70° F., 1.18 at 60° F., and 1.96 at 50° F. The significance of these results, with reference to the thermal steady state of the body, is discussed.

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Sex Differences in Perceptions of Asynchronous Audiotactile Cues

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/1071181319631004 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 63 (1) ◽

pp. 1204-1208

Author(s):

Victoria L. Claypoole ◽

J. Christopher Brill

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Environmental Factors ◽

Stimulus Duration ◽

Present Experiment ◽

Technological Systems ◽

Biological Sex ◽

Tactile Cues ◽

Multisensory Cues ◽

Onset Asynchrony

Multisensory cueing is increasingly used in technological systems to alert users to critical events. However, relatively little is known how environmental factors and individual differences affect the perception of asynchronous multisensory cues. In the present experiment, participants were required to provide “yes/no” discriminations related to perceived simultaneity on 288 pairings of auditory and tactile cues. Both the auditory and tactile cues were presented for either 200, 500, or 1000 milliseconds and incorporated one of twelve randomly-selected levels of onset asynchrony, ranging from 25 ms to 300 ms, at 25 ms intervals. For the analyses, participants were grouped by their biological sex. The results indicated that perceived onset asynchrony was affected by both the stimulus duration and participant sex. Stimuli that were 200 milliseconds in duration resulted in the lowest temporal tolerance for perceived asynchrony relative to 500 and 1000 millisecond audiotactile cues. Moreover, males were more sensitive to asynchronies than females.

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