Dissociation between pain and the nociceptive blink reflex during psychological arousal

Koh, Chee Wan; Drummond, Peter D.

doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2005.12.004

Cited by 25 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Such a dissociation between pain and the NFR has been noted previously (e.g., Andersen et al, 1995;Bouhassira et al, 2003;Edwards et al, 2001Edwards et al, ,2002Edwards et al, ,2003aEdwards et al, ,2006McIntyre et al, 2006;Terkelsen et al, 2004;Willer et al, 1979). In addition, a similar dissociation has been recently reported between pain and the nociceptive blink reflex during psychological arousal (Koh and Drummond, 2006). However, given that the attenuated NFR thresholds in the computer game task condition in the present study meant that lower intensity electrocutaneous shocks were delivered, reports of less pain are most likely to be, at least to a large extent, an artefact of reduced stimulation intensity.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…It is worth noting, in contrast to the present study which included 63 and 115 participants in Experiments 1 and 2 respectively, many of the early NFR studies employed small samples. Given that the likelihood of a type I error is increased with a small sample size (Oakes, 1987), some of the confusion in the literature could derive from the early studies testing less than 20 participants, Finally, it is worth noting that secondary tasks have been shown to facilitate the nociceptive blink reflex (Koh and Drummond, 2006) as well as other spinal reflexes such as the tendon reflex (e.g., Bonnet et al, 1995) and the stretch reflex (e.g., McIntyre et al, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Nociceptive flexion reflex thresholds and pain during rest and computer game play in patients with hypertension and individuals at risk for hypertension

Edwards

Ring

Al’Absi

et al. 2007

Biological Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Supraspinal pain modulation may explain hypertensive hypoalgesia. We compared nociceptive flexion reflex (NFR) thresholds and pain during rest and computer game play in hypertensives and normotensives (Experiment 1) and normotensives with and without hypertensive parents (Experiment 2). The game was selected to modulate activity in pain pathways. NFR thresholds did not differ between groups during rest or game play. Pain ratings never differed between hypertensives and normotensives, whereas individuals with hypertensive parents reported less pain during the first two NFR assessments, compared to those without. NFR thresholds and pain were reduced by game play compared to rest. The failure of game play to differentially modulate NFR thresholds or associated pain reports between groups argues against enhanced supraspinal modulation of nociception and pain in hypertensives and those at increased risk for hypertension.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nociceptive flexion reflex thresholds and pain during rest and computer game play in patients with hypertension and individuals at risk for hypertension

Edwards

Ring

Al’Absi

et al. 2007

Biological Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As indices for excitability in the trigeminal sensory system we have chosen sensory and pain detection thresholds to supraorbital electrical stimuli as well as amplitude of the nociceptive-specific blink reflex (nBR), a brain stem reflex modified by cortical and subcortical afferents [22], [23], [24], [25]. To modulate the visual cortex, we used flash light stimulation or repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) at high or low stimulation frequency [26], [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Visual Cortex Activation on the Nociceptive Blink Reflex in Healthy Subjects

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bright light can cause excessive visual discomfort, referred to as photophobia. The precise mechanisms linking luminance to the trigeminal nociceptive system supposed to mediate this discomfort are not known. To address this issue in healthy human subjects we modulated differentially visual cortex activity by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) or flash light stimulation, and studied the effect on supraorbital pain thresholds and the nociceptive-specific blink reflex (nBR). Low frequency rTMS that inhibits the underlying cortex, significantly decreased pain thresholds, increased the 1st nBR block ipsi- and contralaterally and potentiated habituation contralaterally. After high frequency or sham rTMS over the visual cortex, and rMS over the right greater occipital nerve we found no significant change. By contrast, excitatory flash light stimulation increased pain thresholds, decreased the 1st nBR block of ipsi- and contralaterally and increased habituation contralaterally. Our data demonstrate in healthy subjects a functional relation between the visual cortex and the trigeminal nociceptive system, as assessed by the nociceptive blink reflex. The results argue in favour of a top-down inhibitory pathway from the visual areas to trigemino-cervical nociceptors. We postulate that in normal conditions this visuo-trigeminal inhibitory pathway may avoid disturbance of vision by too frequent blinking and that hypoactivity of the visual cortex for pathological reasons may promote headache and photophobia.

show abstract

“…Although a noncorrelation may be also due to a variability inherent in the methodology, this seems to be unlikely since pain and reflex amplitude reduction of the three different stimulation intensities were positively correlated in our setting. A dissociation between pain sensation and the nociceptive blink reflex has been previously found for psychological arousal induced by a mental task [18] and for the long-term depression induced by low-frequency stimulation [28] as well.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Here, too, under certain circumstances a dissociation between subjective report and reflex recordings can occur [18], but for many purposes this reflex yields a faithful measure of pain modulation [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Comparison of Trigeminal and Spinal Modulation of Pain and Nociception

Rehberg

Baars

Kotsch

et al. 2012

International Journal of Neuroscience

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Modulation of pain and nociception by noxious counterstimulation, also called "diffuse noxious inhibitory controls" or DNIC-like effect, is often used in studies of pain disorders. It can be elicited in the trigeminal and spinal innervation areas, but no study has previously compared effects in both innervation areas. Therefore, we performed a study comparing DNIC-like effects on the nociceptive flexion reflex (NFR) and the nociceptive blink reflex as well as the respective pain sensations. In 50 healthy volunteers, the blink reflex elicited with a concentric electrode and the NFR were recorded before and after immersion of the contralateral hand in cold water. Responses were recorded as the subjective pain sensation and the reflex size. The cold water immersion of the contralateral hand elicited a reduction of both subjective pain sensation and reflex amplitude following the stimulation of both reflexes. However, there were no strong correlations between the individual reductions of both subjective pain sensation and reflex amplitude for both reflexes, and neither when results of the two reflexes were compared with each other. The dissociation between DNIC-like effects on pain and on nociception, which had been found previously already for the NFR, implies that both effects need to be studied separately.

show abstract

Dissociation between pain and the nociceptive blink reflex during psychological arousal

Cited by 25 publications

References 20 publications

Nociceptive flexion reflex thresholds and pain during rest and computer game play in patients with hypertension and individuals at risk for hypertension

Nociceptive flexion reflex thresholds and pain during rest and computer game play in patients with hypertension and individuals at risk for hypertension

Effects of Visual Cortex Activation on the Nociceptive Blink Reflex in Healthy Subjects

Comparison of Trigeminal and Spinal Modulation of Pain and Nociception

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About