Pain relief by touch: a quantitative approach.
Author: Mancini F1, Nash T2, Iannetti GD3, Haggard P4.
Affiliation:
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK; Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, UK. Electronic address: f.mancini@ucl.ac.uk. 2Division of Medicine, University College London, London, UK. 3Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, UK. 4Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
Conference/Journal: Pain
Date published: 2014 Mar
Other:
Volume ID: 155 , Issue ID: 3 , Pages: 635-42 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2013.12.024 , Word Count: 183
Pain relief by touch has been studied for decades in pain neuroscience. Human perceptual studies revealed analgesic effects of segmental tactile stimulation, as compared to extrasegmental touch. However, the spatial organisation of touch-pain interactions within a single human dermatome has not been investigated yet. In 2 experiments we tested whether, how, and where within a dermatome touch modulates the perception of laser-evoked pain. We measured pain perception using intensity ratings, qualitative descriptors, and signal detection measures of sensitivity and response bias. Touch concurrent with laser pulses produced a significant analgesia, and reduced the sensitivity in detecting the energy of laser stimulation, implying a functional loss of information within the ascending Aδ pathway. Touch also produced a bias to judge laser stimuli as less painful. This bias decreased linearly when the distance between the laser and tactile stimuli increased. Thus, our study provides evidence for a spatial organisation of intrasegmental touch-pain interactions.
Copyright © 2013 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS:
Analgesia; Pain; Relief; Signal detection theory; Space; Touch
PMID: 24361816 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC3988987
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