The scientific literature suggests that barefoot activity may be beneficial. There is a current trend in recreational barefoot activity in children and adults, and barefoot running among athletes. Although the type of skin over most of the body (hairy skin) seems to be easily injured by painful abrading loads, little is known about protection provided by plantar sensory feedback against damage ...

2 Declaration 4 Acknowledgments 5 Abstracts published during the PhD 6 Table on contents 7 List of figures and tables 9 Chapter 1: General Introduction 20 1.1 History of the study of sensation and pain 20 1.2 The study of thermal sensitivity 24 1.3 Afferent spinal pathways of thermal sensation 31 1.4 Cellular and molecular mechanisms underling cold sensitivity 33 1.5 Abnormal cold sensitivity i...

The fine structure of the nerve endings in the glabrous skin of the mole snout (Eimer's organ) were studied by light and electron microscopy. There are three types of nerve endings in the mole snout skin: free nerve endings, Merkel cells and encapsulated endings. 1. When nerve fibers enter the epidermis, they lose their myelin sheath. The basement membrane of the Schwann cell fuses with that of...

Peripherally delivered opiates attenuate mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia in experimental models of inflammation, suggesting that activation of peripheral opioid receptors decreases the excitability of nociceptors in inflamed tissues. The current study examines the effects of peripheral morphine sulfate on response properties of sensory neurons in healthy and inflamed skin. Afferent units (1...

Abstract In this work, we report a class of wearable, stitchable, and sensitive carbon nanofiber (CNF)-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite-based piezoresistive sensors realized by carbonizing electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers subsequently embedding in PDMS elastomeric thin films. Electro-mechanical tactile sensing characterization the resulting strain revealed linear response wit...

We compared responses in heart rate (HR), mean blood pressure (MAP), sweating rate (SR), sweating expulsion (SwE), and skin vascular conductance (VC) to mental task among different ambient temperature (Ta) conditions, i.e., 12, 16, 20, and 24 degrees C. Seven subjects (27+/-5 yrs, 64+/-14 kg) underwent a 2-min color word conflict test (CWT) after 2 mins of baseline data acquisition following a ...

BACKGROUND Complex regional pain syndrome is a painful condition of unknown etiology. Clinical and experimental observations suggest that limb immobilization may induce symptoms and signs characteristic of complex regional pain syndrome. This study examined the effect of forearm immobilization on regional sensory and autonomic functions in healthy subjects. METHODS Thermal and mechanical sens...