Thresholds for thermal stimulation of the inner thigh, footpad, and face of cats.

Kenshalo, Dan R.; Duncan, Dennis G.; Weymark, Carolyn

doi:10.1037/h0024177

Cited by 33 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The difficulty that these cats showed in learning the warm discrimination probably is a reflexion of the problem that made the cats of Kenshalo (1964) and Kenshalo et al (1967) fail to learn to react to moderate warming of various parts of the body. No definite explanation for the phenomenon can be given, but it may be due to the relative inaccessibility of warm receptors; e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the results of these electrophysiological studies would suggest that there is equal sensitivity in both peripheral fields, the results of conditioning experiments have indicated that the cat is behaviourally more responsive to temperature stimuli applied to the face than it is to heating and cooling of limited areas of the body. Temperature sensitivity comparable to that of man has been shown for the cat's upper lip and nose (Kenshalo, Duncan & Weymark, 1967;Brearley & Kenshalo, 1970), while testing on the back, the thighs, and the footpads has indicated that a warm stimulus must reach at least 450 C (presumably noxious), and that a cold stimulus must involve a decrease of at least 50 C, for conditioning to be successful (Kenshalo, 1964;Kenshalo et al 1967).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temperature sensitivity of the paw of the cat: a behavioural study

Finger¹,

Norrsell²

1974

The Journal of Physiology

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SUMMARY1. Cats were trained to respond to differences between the temperatures of the floors of two corridors of a modified T-maze for a food reward.2. The cats were able to respond to differences between warm temperatures or differences between cool temperatures in the range of 1°C.3. Both warm and cool discriminations were mediated by receptors located in or near the footpads.4. The paw of the cat thus appears to be more sensitive to temperature changes than was believed previously, and its temperature sensitivity may be comparable to that of the hand of the primate.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature sensitivity of the paw of the cat: a behavioural study

Finger¹,

Norrsell²

1974

The Journal of Physiology

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“…No psychophysical experiments have been reported that have measured behavioral response thresholds of rats to small temperature changes of their skin. Studies by Kenshalo (1964) and Kenshalo, Duncan, and Weymarck (1967) employed temperature changes of the shaved skin of the thigh, back, and footpad of cats as a cue to shock avoidance behavior, and were unable to elicit the response with mild (less than 9°C) warm or cool stimuli applied to skin adapted within the neutral range of 29°-38°C. However, Kenshalo, Duncan, and Weymarck (1967) obtained a response threshold of 1°C skin temperature change from cats exposed to radiant heating of a 4-cm 2 area of the nose adapted to 36.5°C.…”

Section: Experiments Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies by Kenshalo (1964) and Kenshalo, Duncan, and Weymarck (1967) employed temperature changes of the shaved skin of the thigh, back, and footpad of cats as a cue to shock avoidance behavior, and were unable to elicit the response with mild (less than 9°C) warm or cool stimuli applied to skin adapted within the neutral range of 29°-38°C. However, Kenshalo, Duncan, and Weymarck (1967) obtained a response threshold of 1°C skin temperature change from cats exposed to radiant heating of a 4-cm 2 area of the nose adapted to 36.5°C. More recently, Bready and Kenshalo' (1970) measured (behavioral) response thresholds in the cat to thermal stimuli applied to the upper lip by a contact stimulator that could also adapt the skin to temperatures between nOc and 41°C.…”

Section: Experiments Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Response latencies of rats during behavioral thermoregulation

Scott

Blackwood

1973

Perception & Psychophysics

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The cutaneous thermal stimulation that elicits behavioral thermoregulatory behavior was investigated in these experiments. In Experiment I, rats were placed in a cool environment and allowed to barpress for 3-sec bursts of radiant heat reinforcement. In various phases of the study, rats could earn different intensities of anterior, posterior, or whole-body radiation. Identical response rates were exhibited at each intensity for all exposure conditions; this information, when considered with existing literature on behavioral and neurophysiological studies, suggests that the rat's thermoregulatory behavior depends on information carried by nonmyelinated fibers that supply thermoreceptors in the skin. Experiment II investigated the hypothesis that cooling of the skin is the stimulus that elicits each thermoregulatory response. Time series measures of skin temperature fluctuations and reaction times (RTs) were obtained. Tails of the RT distributions were shown to conform to exponential probability density functions, and mean RT varied linearly over the domain of reinforcement intensities used. A computer simulation model that describes temperature gradients across layers of skin was employed to estimate temperature fluctuations at the level of the cool receptors. Comparison of simulated skin temperatures with obtained RTs suggests that momentary thermoregulatory behavior is controlled mainly by cooling skin temperature.The cue that controls responses in behavioral thermoregulation is still unknown, although many aspects of the ability of animals to maintain normal body temperature in cold environments have been studied (Carlisle, 1970;Corbit, 1970). It is well known that a fall in skin temperature is necessary for initiation of behavioral thermoregulation (Weiss & Laties, 1961;Carlisle, 1966Carlisle, , 1968, but a question remains concerning the stimulus utilized by the animal when each operant response is emitted. Several possibilities exist: the animal can work (appetitively) for heat or it can work to avoid or escape cold.A discussion by Carlisle (1970) concluded that heat intake occurs at a constant rate as a function of reinforcer duration and intensity when the former parameter is under control of the animal. He was not able to specify the sensory function that controlled the behavior, but could only assume that some temperature-dependent signal arising from on or within the animal was involved. A model was presented by Corbit (1970) intended to account for available data on thermoregulation:In this model, Thy 0 and TSo are temperatures of the hypothalamus and skin, respectively, that fail to elicit thermoregulatory behavior and may be considered as the core temperature and skin temperature of the rat measured at 20°-2SoC. They are relatively constant throughout the experiment, so that behavior is mainly During behavioral thermoregulation, the sequence of response-reinforcement pairs causes T. to fluctuate more rapidly, and throughout a greater range, than variations in T. o ' Thus, T. is more likely to serve ...

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“…To date, relatively few warm receptors have been found in the region of the hind limb, whereas the nose seems richly supplied in this respect (Hensel, 1968;Hensel & Kenshalo, 1969). Kenshalo has proposed (Kenshalo, 1964;Kenshalo, Duncan & Weymark, 1967), on the basis of the apparent paucity of warm fibres in the hind limb plus the results of his behavioural studies, that there exists a real difference in thermal sensitivity between the nose and the hind limb. Since it was felt that technical factors may have, in some cases, prevented earlier workers from detecting neural activity associated with hind-limb warming, a re-investigation of warm fibre activity in the hind limb was undertaken in the present study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peripheral nerve activity in response to heating the cat's skin

Stolwijk¹,

Wexler²

1971

The Journal of Physiology

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SUMMARY1. The sensitivity of the cat hind-limb skin to non-noxious heating was studied. Neural activity was recorded with micro-electrodes from intact multifibre fascicles of the saphenous nerve while the skin was actively heated or passively cooled.2. Moderate warming from indifferent temperatures of 30-34' C to temperatures of 38-39' C produced a reduction in the total rate of firing of the integrated discharge. Firing picked up sharply again at skin temperatures above 390 C. A considerable fraction of the impulse activity elicited above 39°C was carried by C-fibre afferents.3. Prolonged heating to temperatures in excess of 450 C rendered the skin insensitive to further non-noxious heating or to touch.4. The neural response to a step increase in skin temperature consisted of a delayed overshoot and then a steady-state level of firing. Steady-state firing was proportional to the level of skin temperature.5. Nerves whose C-fibre input to the spinal cord had been selectively blocked showed a potentiation of the neural response to skin heating.6. The sensitivity of hind-limb skin to heating, as judged by the character of the multifibre discharge, appears similar to that reported for a highly warm-sensitive region of the nose.

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Thresholds for thermal stimulation of the inner thigh, footpad, and face of cats.

Cited by 33 publications

References 13 publications

Temperature sensitivity of the paw of the cat: a behavioural study

Temperature sensitivity of the paw of the cat: a behavioural study

Response latencies of rats during behavioral thermoregulation

Peripheral nerve activity in response to heating the cat's skin

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