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The Thermal Grill Illusion of Pain: Effects of Altering Placements of Warm and Cool Grill Elements

The simultaneous application of interlaced innocuous warm and cool stimuli can elicit sensations of burning heat (the Thermal Grill Illusion, TGI). The TGI is thought to reflect changes in the central interactions between somatosensory sub-modalities (i.e. cold-inhibition of pain). Previous studies used multiple alternating warm and cool bars to elicit a TGI. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of altering the placements of warm and cool grill elements on the intensities of perceived pain and unpleasantness in 26 male subjects. Arranging the thermal grill elements in a warm flanking cool (WCW) pattern evoked significantly higher intensities of pain and unpleasantness than a cool flanking warm (CWC) pattern and a uniform warm stimulus. Conversely, CWC did not elicit significantly different intensities of perceived pain and unpleasantness than a uniform cool stimulus. This finding may reflect differences in the level of activation of central neurons.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/32253
Date21 March 2012
CreatorsLam, Jason
ContributorsDostrovsky, Jonathan O., Hunter, Judith
Source SetsUniversity of Toronto
Languageen_ca
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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