Similarities in age differences in heat pain perception and thermal sensitivity

Age differences in the thresholds for heat pain, warmth and cold were studied in 64 healthy persons from 17 to 63 years of age (32 women, 32 men). The stimuli were applied to the thenar and the dorsum pedis with a contact thermode. The thresholds increased significantly with age in all modalities on the foot, but not on the hand. Furthermore, the quotients of the individual foot and hand thresholds revealed a significant relative increase in all thresholds on the foot. The length of the afferent pathways seems to influence the degree of age-related changes both in heat pain perception and in thermal sensitivity, resulting in a distal-proximal pattern of age-dependent decline.