In this study, we investigated the “heat phantom sensation” induced by thermal stimulation of two points. Phantom sensations are tactile illusions induced at a point between two or more stimuli, and have been demonstrated to occur in the event of vibration stimulation. However, their induction by thermal stimuli has not been fully investigated. We confirmed the existence of a heat phantom sensa...

The idea of thermal tomography is slicing a work piece for some in-depth layers which exhibit the distribution of thermal properties in materials by the analogy with X-ray tomography. Thermal tomography is based on the analysis of the surface temperature evolution which follows thermal stimulation of test samples. In this paper, some experimental results of applying the dynamic thermal tomograp...

Experimentally, the effects of environmental conditions upon human capabilities have been studied most often through the imposition of a single stressor in isolation. Although it seems to be a common belief that thermal comfort can be influenced by concomitant stimulation of non-tactile sensorial modalities, few studies have succeeded in delineating non-tactile stimulations, which interact with...

Chronic pain is thought to arise because of maladaptive changes occurring within the peripheral nervous system and CNS. The transition from acute to chronic pain is known to involve the spinal cord (Woolf and Salter, 2000). Therefore, to investigate altered human spinal cord function and translate results obtained from other species, a noninvasive neuroimaging technique is desirable. We have in...

Although the neurokinin-1 (NK-1)/substance P (SP) receptor is expressed by neurons throughout the spinal dorsal horn, noxious chemical stimulation in the normal rat only induces internalization of the receptor in cell bodies and dendrites of lamina I. Here we compared the effects of mechanical and thermal stimulation in normal rats and in rats with persistent hindpaw inflammation. Electron micr...

RATIONALE The aim of our study was to assess the changes in the fronto-parietal connectivity estimated by the cross approximate entropy (XAppEn) during noxious stimulation while under chloral hydrate anaesthesia, in rats. METHOD A group of 11 Wistar rats chronically implanted with Ni-Cr electrodes, which were placed on the dura mater of the right hemisphere (over the olfactory cortex, the fro...

Brainstem neurons that are thought to modulate pain are reported to have state-dependent discharge rates. Yet, the effect of behavioral state upon nociceptive transmission has not been well studied. Therefore, we examined responses to noxious thermal stimulation of the rat hindpaw presented during different behavioral states. Noxious thermal stimuli were applied to rats as they spontaneously cy...

Thermal tasters (TTs) perceive thermally induced taste (thermal taste) sensations when the tongue is stimulated with temperature in the absence of gustatory stimuli, while thermal non tasters (TnTs) only perceive temperature. This is the first study to explore detailed differences in thermal taste responses across TTs. Using thermal taster status phenotyping, 37 TTs were recruited, and the temp...

1. WM topic and description Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive and painless technique for stimulation or inhibition of certain brain regions. A stimulating coil placed near the surface of a patient's head is energized by a very short current pulse, generating the time varying magnetic field of high intensity penetrating into nearby tissues such as skull and brain. Accordi...