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Neural correlates of prickle sensation: a percept-related fMRI study

Nature Neuroscience volume 5, pages 1121–1122 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

The painful sensations produced by a laceration, freeze, burn, muscle strain or internal injury are readily distinguishable because each is characterized by a particular sensory quality such as sharp, aching, burning or prickling. We propose that there are specific neural correlates of each pain quality, and here we used a new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) method to identify time-locked responses to prickle sensations that were evoked by noxious cold stimuli. With percept-related fMRI, we identified prickle-related brain activations in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula, secondary somatosensory cortex (S2), prefrontal cortex (PFC), premotor cortex (PMC), caudate nucleus and dorsomedial thalamus, indicating that multiple pain, sensory and motor areas act together to produce the prickle sensation.

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Figure 1: Individual psychophysical prickle responses.
Figure 2: Prickle-related activations.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and by funds provided by the Canada Research Chair program to K.D.D. The authors thank J. Downar for writing the 'peak-finder' software plug-in and for general statistical advice, and G. Detzler for MRI technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    K.D. Davis

  2. Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    A.P. Crawley & D.J. Mikulis

  3. Toronto Western Research Institute, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network MP14-306, 399 Bathurst Street, Toronto, M5T 2S8, Ontario, Canada

    K.D. Davis, G.E. Pope, A.P. Crawley & D.J. Mikulis

Authors
  1. K.D. Davis
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  2. G.E. Pope
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  3. A.P. Crawley
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  4. D.J. Mikulis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to K.D. Davis.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Davis, K., Pope, G., Crawley, A. et al. Neural correlates of prickle sensation: a percept-related fMRI study. Nat Neurosci 5, 1121–1122 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn955

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