Spinal spatial integration of nociception and its functional role assessed via the nociceptive withdrawal reflex and psychophysical measures in healthy humans.
TLDR
By the NWR, spatial summation was shown to affect the nociceptive processing within the spinal cord, and the inhibited motor response obtained when simultaneously stimulating the medial and lateral side of the sole of the foot suggests the presence of an inhibitory mechanism with a functional, behaviorally oriented function.Abstract:
Animal studies have previously shown that deep dorsal horn neurons play a role in the processing of spatial characteristics of nociceptive information in mammals. Human studies have supported the role of the spinal neurons; however, the mechanisms involved, and its significance, remain to be clarified. The aim of this study was to investigate spatial aspects of the spinal integration of concurrent nociceptive electrical stimuli in healthy humans using the Nociceptive Withdrawal Reflex (NWR) as an objective indication of spinal nociceptive processing. Fifteen healthy volunteers participated in the study. Electrical stimuli were delivered, using five electrodes located across the sole of the foot in a mediolateral disposition, as a single or double simultaneous stimuli with varying Inter-Electrode Distances (IEDs). The stimulation intensity was set at 1.5× NWR threshold (TA muscle). The size of the NWR was quantified in the 60-180 ms poststimulus window as a primary outcome measure. Psychophysical measures were secondary outcomes. Single stimulation elicited significantly smaller NWRs and perceived intensity than double stimulation (p < .01), suggesting the presence of spatial summation occurring within the spinal processing. During double stimulation, increasing the inter-electrode distance produced significantly smaller NWR sizes (p < .05) but larger pain intensity ratings (p < .05). By the NWR, spatial summation was shown to affect the nociceptive processing within the spinal cord. The inhibited motor response obtained when simultaneously stimulating the medial and lateral side of the sole of the foot suggests the presence of an inhibitory mechanism with a functional, behaviorally oriented function.read more
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Spinal Nociception is Facilitated during Cognitive Distraction
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors used the Nociceptive withdrawal reflex (NWR) to investigate whether the spinal spatial integration of a simultaneous stimulus is modulated by shifting the attention of the participant towards (attention) or away from (distraction) the stimulus.
Journal ArticleDOI
Tempo-spatial integration of nociceptive stimuli assessed via the nociceptive withdrawal reflex in healthy humans.
TL;DR: Tempo-spatial integration of electrical noxious stimuli was studied using the nociceptive withdrawal reflex and a perceived intensity as mentioned in this paper, where the Tibialis anterior and biceps femoris muscles were differential...
Journal ArticleDOI
Spatial Acuity of the Nociceptive System and Spatial Summation of Pain: Potential Implications for the Clinic
TL;DR: It is pointed out that the nociceptive system is more accurate than the tactile system when controlling for the stimulus modality and intensity in healthy pain-free individuals and shows that the pattern of distance-based and areabased spatial summation of pain is modality independent.
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