title: Laser evoked brain potentials in response to painful trigeminal nerve activation.
abstract: Long latency brain potentials were evoked by infrared laser stimuli (LEPs) applied to the right forehead in order to activate the thinnest cutaneous A-delta afferents of the upper branch of the trigeminal nerve thus inducing a painful sensation. Ten healthy male subjects participated in 4 identical subsequent sessions, one week apart, receiving 4 blocks of 40 stimuli each. This way the individual trigeminal LEPs, as well as their inter- and intraindividual reliability were determined. Five major components could be identified, denoted by polarity and peak latencies: N150, P230, N300, P360, N480. The LEP waveforms were found to be highly stable within subjects, peak latencies varied by less than 5%. Great variation in waveform appeared amongst subjects, peak latencies varied by more than 15%. The last two components exhibited the largest variability and were not identified in all subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University Hospital Eppendorf, Hamburg, FRG.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kazarians
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Scharein
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bromm
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007834:Lasers / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014276:Trigeminal Nerve