BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to assess the consequences of severe spinothalamic tract lesions resulting from lateral medullary infarct and to show that a specific pain perception can be elicited by strong thermal stimulation. CASE DESCRIPTIONS Both patients examined presented with severe thermoalgic dissociation of the limbs contralateral to the lesion, with normal discriminative somat...

In a patient with a familial form of paroxysmal exertion induced dyskinesia (PED), the efficacy of different stimuli and manoeuvres in triggering dystonic attacks in the arm was studied. As a new approach, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the motor cortex was used to trigger motor paroxysms and to monitor cortical excitability during attacks. Motor paroxysms could be provoked by muscl...

Sleep deprivation-induced deficiencies in performance can be associated with high financial and human costs. Napping is an effective countermeasure, but the effects depend on previously accumulated sleep debt and timing, duration and sleep architecture of the naps. Long-term assessment of sleep architecture of nap/sleep episodes could yield an estimate of the accumulated sleep debt and help opt...

In recent years, NonDestructive Testing (NDT) systems have been upgraded with three-dimensional information. Indeed, combine the three-dimensional and thermal information allows a more meaningful analysis. In the literature, the data for NDT and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction analysis are commonly acquired from independent systems. However, the use of two such systems leads to error anal...

During the course of a psychophysical study of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), one of the subjects with a long history of headache and facial pain displayed an extraordinarily severe thermal allodynia. Her stimulus-response function for ratings of cutaneous heat pain revealed a sensitivity clearly beyond that of normal controls and most FMS subjects. Specially designed psychophysical methods showe...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The aim of this investigation was to study the effect of electrical stimulation on nociceptive responses within the lumbar levels of the rat spinal cord. METHODS A single high-energy thermal pulse produced by a surgical laser stimulator (5 W, 30 milliseconds) was applied on the plantar surface of the hind paws of male Sprague-Dawley rats. The spinal cord field potential...