Neuroscience letters
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Neuroscience letters · Oct 2005
Double stimulation of tiny skin areas in human subjects increases the number of C- and Adelta-fiber responses.
The stimulation of tiny skin areas has been shown to be a useful method for the investigation of the central nervous processing of C-fiber stimulation. However, recent studies have also indicated that most subjects fail to recognize a large number of such stimulation. This fact renders this method to be rather time consuming, a fact that limits its applicability. ⋯ This increase of the number of recognized stimuli is accompanied by an increase of the averaged subjects' experience of stimulus intensity. However, there was no significant increase of intensity rating for the different types of fibers stimulated. Data indicate that the double stimulation of tiny skin areas represents an alternative option to the application of single stimuli to tiny skin areas that significantly reduces the exposure time of subjects in order to evaluate behavioral consequences of the stimulation as well as central nervous processing of C- and Adelta-fiber input.
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Neuroscience letters · Oct 2005
Effect of propofol anesthesia on pallidal neuronal discharges in generalized dystonia.
We present the results of continuous microelectrode recordings from individual pallidal neurons in patients with idiopathic torsion dystonia under different levels of propofol anesthesia. Neither the estimated plasma concentration of propofol nor the level of consciousness had a consistent effect on abnormally low neuronal firing rates. Our data support the pathophysiological model of a decreased basal ganglia output in dystonia and argue against a possible pharmacological artifact.