Pain perception in humans: use of intraepidermal electrical stimulation: Figure 1

Abstract

The choice of a system specific stimulus is difficult when investigating the human nociceptive system, in contrast with the tactile, auditory and visual systems, because it should be noxious but not actually damage the tissue. The discomfort accompanying system specific stimulation must be kept to a minimum for ethical reasons. In this review, recent progress made in the study of human pain perception using intraepidermal electrical stimulation (IES) is described. Also, whether IES is a viable alternative to laser stimulation is discussed. IES selectively activates Aδ nociceptors, elicits a sharp pricking sensation with minimal discomfort and evokes cortical responses almost identical to those produced by laser stimulation. As IES does not require expensive equipment, and is easy to control, it would seem useful for pain research as well as clinical tests.

Expectation violation and attention to pain jointly modulate neural gain in somatosensory cortex

“…Painful stimuli were delivered using two intra-epidermal electrodes (Inui et al, 2002, Inui and Kakigi, 2012), via two Digitimer DS7A stimulators (Digitimer, Hertfordshire, UK). One concentric bipolar needle electrode was placed on the dorsum of each hand, over the radial nerve.…”

A fine neuroscience vintage

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Remembrance of things future

“…But reducing all things to chemistry, maths and matter removes the magic. Imagining a burnt hand seems more effective than the scientific translation of the reductive approach, relating intense pain to neural activity generated by receptors,7 with a surge of glutamate in the hippocampus!…”