" Cold" fiber population innervating palmar and digital skin of the monkey: responses to cooling pulses.

I Darian-Smith, KO Johnson… - Journal of …, 1973 - journals.physiology.org
I Darian-Smith, KO Johnson, R Dykes
Journal of neurophysiology, 1973journals.physiology.org
IN DATLY EXPERIENCE we alce most aWare Of local changes in skin temperature that
occur rapidly. Briefly touching the smooth surface of a metal block at room temperature will,
for example, elicit a well-defined sensation of local cooling, whereas a gradual reduction of
the skin temperature to the same level commonly passed unnoticed+ The changes in skin
temperature that occur on touching the cool object have a simple pattern that may be
simulated experimentally: the skin temperature in the region of contact drops rapidly from its …
IN DATLY EXPERIENCE we alce most aWare Of local changes in skin temperature that occur rapidly. Briefly touching the smooth surface of a metal block at room temperature will, for example, elicit a well-defined sensation of local cooling, whereas a gradual reduction of the skin temperature to the same level commonly passed unnoticed+ The changes in skin temperature that occur on touching the cool object have a simple pattern that may be simulated experimentally: the skin temperature in the region of contact drops rapidly from its previous steady level to a second value, and then on withdrawal, returns to the initial temperature-a temperature “pulse” is generated.
In the present and following paper we have developed a quantitative description of the events in a cutaneous nerve fiber population evoked by cooling pulses, and related this to the human subject’s ability to differentiate changes in the intensity of successively presented stimuli. Since all the immediate information that the observer has about changes in skin temperature is relayed via the cutaneous afferent fibers that innervate the cooled area, we aimed to identify those features of the peripheral neural response that relate causally to the sensation of cold.
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