OBJECTIVES (1) To investigate the development of hypoesthesia from soon after the whiplash injury to 6 months postinjury and (2) to determine differences in detection thresholds between those with initial features of poor recovery and those without these signs. METHODS Fifty-two participants with acute whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) (<1 mo) were classified as either "high-risk" (n=17; Ne...

During development, detection for many percepts matures gradually. This provides a natural system in which to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying performance differences: those aspects of neural activity that mature in conjunction with behavioral performance are more likely to subserve detection. In principle, the limitations on performance could be attributable to either immature sens...

Neuroplasticity underlies the brain's ability to alter perception and behavior through training, practice, or simply exposure to sensory stimulation. Improvement of tactile discrimination has been repeatedly demonstrated after repetitive sensory stimulation (rSS) of the fingers; however, it remains unknown if such protocols also affect hand dexterity or pain thresholds. We therefore stimulated ...

UNLABELLED Several brain stimulation technologies are beginning to evidence promise as pain treatments. However, traditional versions of 1 specific technique, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), stimulate broad regions of cortex with poor spatial precision. A new tDCS design, called high definition tDCS (HD-tDCS), allows for focal delivery of the charge to discrete regions of the co...

BACKGROUND Hyperalgesia is a well recognized hallmark of disease. Pro-inflammatory cytokines have been suggested to be mainly responsible, but human data are scarce. Changes in pain threshold during systemic inflammation evoked by human endotoxemia, were evaluated with three quantitative sensory testing methods. METHODS AND RESULTS Pressure pain thresholds, electrical pain thresholds and tole...