OBJECTIVE To analyze the relationship between perceptions and electrical senoidal current stimulation (ESCS). METHOD The study population comprise 100 healthy volunteers. ESCS of 5 Hz and 2 kHz were applied to the left index finger at one and 1.5 sensory threshold. Following each stimulus train a list of eight words (four related to thin fiber sensations and four related to thick fiber sensat...

Steering wheel controls have become an essential interface for interacting with in-car human machine interfaces. The increase in both number and complexity of features in the car challenges the scalability of button-based mechanical steering wheel interfaces. Alternatives such as touch input are making their way into steering wheels of mass production cars. Multi-level force input adds a degree...

Assessed sensory and pain thresholds can change consequently to disturbances associated with ongoing pain. Such assessments could be an additional method in the daily clinical evaluation of perceived pain. To study the test-retest variability within-day and between-day of such procedures a newly developed instrument producing electrocutaneous stimulation, PainMatcher (PM), was used to assess th...

Pressure threshold measurements were made using a set of three Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments on 1 32 plantar u\cer sites in 72 leprosy patients and 45 plantar u\cer sites in 28 diabetic patients. The most common sites of u\ceration were the great toe and first metatarsal head. No patient could feel monofilaments smaller than 6 · \ 0 (75 g) . The next smallest filament, 5 ·07 ( 1 0 g), was iden...

BACKGROUND Anecdotal accounts of sensory hypersensitivity in individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have been noted since the first reports of the condition. Over time, empirical evidence has supported the notion that those with ASC have superior visual abilities compared with control subjects. However, it remains unclear whether these abilities are specifically the result of differe...

BACKGROUND Many studies show an effectiveness of hypnotic analgesia. It has been discussed whether the analgesic effect is mainly caused by the relaxation that is concomitant to hypnosis. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of hypnotic relaxation suggestion on different somatosensory detection and pain thresholds. METHODS Quantitative sensory testing (QST) measurements were perfor...

Homeostatic regulation is a defining characteristic of sleep but has rarely been examined in infants. This study presents an automated method of sleep deprivation in which 5-day-old rats were shocked whenever the nuchal muscle became atonic. The intensity of shock was always set at the minimal level required to maintain arousal. Deprived pups exhibited rapid increases in sleep pressure, as evid...

Diacetyl (2,3-butanedione) imparts an unpleasant "butterscotch-like" flavor to alcoholic beverages such as beer, and therefore its concentration needs to be reduced below the sensory threshold before packaging. We examined the mechanisms that lead to highly elevated diacetyl formation in petite mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during beer fermentations. We present evidence that elevated diac...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the reproducibility of measured indices of chronic peripheral neuropathy from a field study of sheep dippers when compared with similar measurements carried out in a clinical setting. METHODS A stratified random sample of field study subjects was invited to attend a clinic. Neuropathy was measured both in the field and at the clinic with a modified version of a stand...

Gender differences in pain perception have been frequently discussed, but the documented gender-related pain-alleviating effects of non-pharmacological methods are sparse. In this study we aimed to investigate changes in electrical sensory thresholds and electrical pain thresholds, in response to high frequency transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, TENS, for 20 min in healthy women (n=29...