A quantitative study on the tail flick test in the rat.
Tail flick latency and response temperature were measured in awake rats. Both of these parameters varied with the change in rate of increase of radiant heat stimulus and the area of skin irradiated. The caloric factor applied to the tail before the response occurred was calculated approximately from the time-temperature curves monitored over the tail and the response latencies. The magnitude of the caloric factor over a tentative threshold temperature was the crucial factor for the induction of tail flick response, because it was similar for the various irradiating conditions. It was proposed that analgesic effects in the tail flick test may be expressed using this caloric factor which allows direct comparison of studies in which different base-line latencies are used.
D000698:Analgesia; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006358:Hot Temperature; D010146:Pain / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D011930:Reaction Time; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D013623:Tail / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors