[Stimulation of tiny skin areas for selective stimulation of C fibres].
BACKGROUND
It has been found difficult to stimulate the primary C-fibre afferents separately from those of Adelta fibres. A necessary and sufficient condition for the investigation of the C-fibre system is the selective stimulation of C fibres without activation of Adelta fibres. The stimulation of tiny skin areas allows such a selective activation of C fibres.


RESULTS
The main aspects of the method for stimulation of tiny skin areas as well as some results obtained by this method are reported here. The application of this method is compared with applications of other methods that allow an investigation of central processing of human C-fibre input.


CONCLUSIONS
The stimulation of tiny skin areas represents a simple method for selective stimulation of C fibres.
Weiss
T
T
Institut für Biologische und Klinische Psychologie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. weiss@biopsy.uni-jena.de
Miltner
W H R
WH
D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology; D006225:Hand / Q000294:innervation*; D006801:Humans; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000502:physiology; D036421:Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated / Q000502:physiology*; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012867:Skin / Q000294:innervation*; D013823:Thermoreceptors / Q000502:physiology*; D013697:Thermosensing / Q000502:physiology*