Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology
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Conditioning Pain Modulation (CPM) represents the various descending inhibitory mechanisms induced by a heterotopic noxious stimulation (previously termed DNIC). CPM-induced modulations in brain activity have not previously been investigated to visceral pain. Hence the aims were to assess the role of CPM in terms of: (1) psychophysics, (2) alterations in topography and amplitudes of evoked brain potentials and (3) modelling the brain activity. ⋯ The model provides a unique approach to study basic pain and pharmacological intervention in healthy volunteers as well as in patients with dysfunctional pain inhibition.
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This study examined whether attention deficits in fragile X syndrome (FXS) can be traced back to abnormalities in basic information processing. ⋯ These findings demonstrate that auditory information processing in FXS males is critically impaired relative to visual information processing.
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Clinical Trial
Tonic pain and continuous EEG: prediction of subjective pain perception by alpha-1 power during stimulation and at rest.
Pain neurophysiology has been chiefly characterized via event-related potentials (ERPs), which are exerted using brief, phase-locked noxious stimuli. Striving for objectively characterizing clinical pain states using more natural, prolonged stimuli, tonic pain has been recently associated with the individual peak frequency of alpha oscillations. This finding encouraged us to explore whether alpha power, reflecting the magnitude of the synchronized activity within this frequency range, will demonstrate a corresponding relationship with subjective perception of tonic pain. ⋯ The relevance of alpha-1 power to tonic pain perception may deepen the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the processing of prolonged noxious stimulation.
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To evaluate if hyperreflexia (exaggerated reflexes) due to disinhibition is associated with dystonia in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). ⋯ This study suggests that CRPS-patients with dystonia are not hyperreflexive.
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Controlled Clinical Trial
Evoked potentials and quantitative thermal testing in spinal cord injury patients with chronic neuropathic pain.
Neuropathic pain (NP) is a common symptom following spinal cord injury (SCI). NP may be associated with altered processing of somatosensory pathways in dermatomes rostral to the injury level. To explore this possibility, the characteristics of contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) and quantitative thermal testing (QTT) were studied at and above the lesion level in SCI patients with NP. The goal was to determine processing abnormalities correlated with data from clinical evaluations. ⋯ SCI somatosensory processing alteration may contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying NP and secondary changes to NP in SCI.