Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Determining heat and mechanical pain threshold in inflamed skin of human subjects
Published on: January 14, 2009
Differential effect of compression-ischaemia block on warm sensation and heat-induced pain
1Department of Neurology, Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center, Portland, Oregon.
Abstract:
The effect of compression-ischaemia nerve block on psychophysical thresholds for warm sensation and heat-induced pain was studied on 19 normal human volunteers. Although those two sensory submodalities should be predicted to block simultaneously, based on the fact that both are served by unmyelinated primary afferents, it was actually found that warm sensation was much more vulnerable to compression-ischaemia than heat-induced pain. This is interpreted as resulting from different summation requirements for each of the two sensory modalities; sensation of warmth depends on spatial summation to a larger extent than heat-induced pain. Such differential vulnerability is in line with recent clinical studies reporting deterioration of warm sensation associated with preservation of heat pain in peripheral nerve disorders caused by diabetes, ageing and other neuropathic processes.
Related Concept Videos
Thermosensation
Local Anesthetics: Differential Sensitivity of Nerve Fibers
Pain
Peripheral Arterial Disease II: Clinical Manifestations and Diagnostic Evaluation
Acute Inflammation III: Local and Systemic Effects

